IGWEBUIKE: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities Vol. 9 No.3, 2023 www.igwebuikeresearchinstitute.org/igwebuikejournals.php A Publication of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Tansian University, Umunya 68 POLITICIAN-LINGUISM AND THE FACTS OF POST-POLITICS: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS Eruka, C. Raphael, PhD Department of Philosophy, Madonna University, Nigeria, Okija Campus erukaraff@gmail.com DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.30881.58724 Abstract The difference between ideology and praxis is a real difference, especially in the superstructure of politics. The empirical fact of a vacuum in the sphere of praxiology is a reality of political history. Yet this fact is preceded by socio-cultural conditions that indeed make it possible. Of premium significance in those conditions is the strategy of politician-linguistic conditioning that eventually works for mass appeal. Communication fault lines become conscious methodology in conceptual maneuvres. If political art is a deliberate function of this dissonance between what is communicated and what obtains, then political science may need collaboration with philosophy in the way of interrogations regarding this dissonance. In this interdisciplinary approach, there emerges the comprehension that the prelude to political activism includes not just the socio-political conditions that are part of the science, but also the central role of political psychology that must be allowed to demand the univocalism of concepts that logically trail off in the unicity of ideology and praxis. This is against the subsisting equivocalism that creates distance between perspectives and meanings and in the end, a deconstructivist approach to intended meaning. Nigeria was used as a case study in the real attempt at analysis of political conceptual elements that constitute its make-up and modes of political operations. The political psychology perspective of scientific theoretical development proffers recommendations that would contribute to bridging the perceived gap and ensuring a fruitful outcome between ideology and praxis. Politician-linguism needs ideological policing such that political communications would benefit intended recipients. Keywords: Politician-linguism; ideology; praxis; interrogations; interdisciplinary mediation. mailto:erukaraff@gmail.com Eruka, C. Raphael 69 Introduction Politician-linguism can best be described as a neologism in political communication. As a principle, it is an ideological tool of political behaviour. There is even a sense in which one can regard politician-linguism as intellectualistic, a somewhat belated construct and strategy for steering a worldview towards a pre-determined political orientation. A worldview is the function of the truth therein. It may be largely seen in terms of the stability of the perception of the people towards given realities. The worldview of the people works to galvanize their views onto consensus positions. This notwithstanding, unilateralism of views does not always define the social and political spectra of given communities. In this, dynamism tends to chart the true course of the people’s political- ideological orientations. Dynamic perceptions are occasioned mainly by political behaviour. Fundamentally, it is more a matter of response to the situational praxis of the trajectory of politics. From the phenomenological viewpoint, it can be stated that nothing is as challengingly dynamic as politics, especially in the way it is exercised on the populace. Change is everything in social, economic and political relations. Because this obtains with radicality on the superstructure of politics, its multiplier effects continue in widening concentricity in the substructures of social and economic relations. Experiences of the times demonstrate that politicians do not subscribe to the stability of world views, that is, in the dimension of the pursuit of permanence concerning the true perception of the realities on the ground by the masses. The true perception of reality as a creation of political behaviour is a problem that needs to be challenged and overcome. This overcoming can only be by way of contestation of mass-information inflow; through specially engineered re-orientation of mindset: the masses need to adapt, they believe, positively to a perception construct – a creation of politician ideological course. Specialized language form does the magic – to sway, indoctrinate, manipulate, re-direct, form and misinform! The perfection of the methodology of deployment of the politician's linguistic skill does the seamless job of ensuring the followership of the masses not minding that they, the masses are aware of the true worldview in which they, the politicians operate and who are responsible for creating the state of affairs they regret to find themselves, they, the people, would have acted differently. What indeed is politician-linguism? It is the super orientation in politician communication skills. Politician-linguism is not necessarily language form socio-culturally considered. Language is culture based and biased. There are millions of languages based on sociocultural developments and historical circumstances of peoples. Politician-linguism has to be understood from its monistic ideological and meta-cultural operational Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 70 paradigm. It is a meta-language of political elitism. Grasped this way, it’s therefore seen to be independent of geo-locus. Politician-linguism refers to a plane of communication that involves the rich internal milieu of the politician, a terrain of communicative skill the domain of which the politician frequents. It has to be understood as a storehouse, a hidden pool of information resources from within and from which the politician retails information to the people in the politician’s understanding of what qualifies as relevance to the advancement of the political project. Politician-linguism pertains to the world of politicians as such without particular considerations to the politician per se irrespective of race, geography or other affiliations. Politician-linguism informs the background for the politician’s thought process, communication and action. Is there an exception? Even if there is, the rule is not thereby overruled. The fact remains that politician-linguism is real, operational and a course that the politician determines into the art of politicking. The contestation lies in this struggle for the prevalence of the view of the politician dovetailing in its mass acceptance that works to continually earn a place of honour for the politician and possibly honorifics as well. Politician-linguism invites serious understudy and explication without which conceptual manipulation may work to offer the people misinformation from equivocations, outright deceptions or apparent truths. Why research on politician-linguism? The research is informed by the need to create awareness of the real issues behind politician communication in the beef-up to power ascendancy and what transpires afterwards. Politician-linguism is a relevant field of research in the wake of mass hoodwinking in the scramble for followership and the continued struggle for the maintenance of politician relevance. Why, one is forced to inquire, the existence of instantiation between politicians’ positions before and after the capture of political power? This distantiation, if it exists, is of essence to the science and art of philosophy. Political theorization and pragmatics have invested interests in uncovering the complex differentiations between the enunciation of sound political principles as tools for political office and the commitment to the realization of the principles in the aftermath of the free exercise of power consequent on the assumption of political positions. This determines the substantial difference between peace in the polity and the perceived shortcomings in this regard. Political pragmatics as decipherable in realized programs of action is a function of the intricacies of politician-linguism. Why the distance between politician- linguism and praxis? Why is the gulf between principles and the pragmatics inherent in the principles? Is politician-linguism a methodology in politicking? Is it an art embroiled in transparency problematic or is there a science to it? How can this phenomenon in Eruka, C. Raphael 71 politics be dealt with such that theories and praxis cohere in substantial realization? To begin to respond to this, there is a need to investigate the end of politics. The end of politics Political Philosophy investigates the best form of government for the society; referred to in its classical form as commitment to achieving an ideal society (Popkin & Stroll, 1993, p. 59). It is the search for the best political order. The best political order is such as would ensure the best of factors, opportunities and circumstances for the people to realize their potential as humans. The end of politics is the maximum humanization of the people in the places in which they find themselves. Why the philosophical essence in this? It is the first to underscore the dynamism of political structures. This includes ideologies and regime typologies. While ideologies point to the end of philosophical reflections on the ideal state; regime typologies would refer to the pragmatics involved in the concretization of the forms in the order of politics. The implication of the dynamism in structure reflects in the understanding that politics is yet to deliver on its natural expectations: the path to it, methodologies in delivery and the humanization motif. Second, dynamism is as well a function of views, perspectives and political goals. In democracies, these ought to be mainstreamed into democratic ideology. The challenge even in a democracy, touted as the ideology that majorly should be able to deliver on ideological-value expectations, is that the end remains open to multiplicities of interrogations. It is in the face of these that the search for the best political order continues to be relevant. The interrogation touches on the human dimension. This paper opines that it is not just ideologies that are relevant, it is the human interface. New studies in the best order concerning ideological typology should take cognizance of political psychology. Social and political philosophy needs to be done on the presupposition of proper political psychology. This refers to the human psyche behind political praxis. Philosophy has long left this essential interdisciplinary mediation to political art. This has created a vacuum in the sense of inefficiency – political art seems to foot-drag in a case that pertains to self. The intervention of political philosophy is in terms of developing a normative of political psychology. An element of the ethnicization of political behaviour may be part of the result of proper interrogation of political philosophy. This is intended to be before theorizations on the best social order. Theoretical constructions independently prescribe methods and principles for the realization of opportunities; the realization proper is a function of the psyche behind praxis. Beyond politician-linguism, there have to be fresh interrogations on the political psychological orientations and motifs. Political behaviour references would contribute to defining true motives. Politician-linguism, however, has failed in contributing to this definition. If anything, politician-linguism has defined away the end of political Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 72 ideologies and praxis. What are the true ends of politics? How does democracy fare in these? The next step would be to examine the thoughts of leading thinkers about the best political order and the praxis of political realism. Thoughts of some social-political philosophers In the Golden Age of Greek philosophy, reflections on the state were given due attention. Socrates, for instance, was interested in establishing the right foundations for building a social and political philosophy. Given that this was the era of the Sophists, Socrates felt that the presupposition of proper social theories was the foundation upon which such theories would stand. The Sophists lacked this foundation in their ideas which Plato believed were ill-fated and anarchic (Nisbet, 1983, p. 9). The Sophists operated on the supposition, according to one of the protagonists, Protagoras, that ‘Man is the measure of all things’ (Njoku, 2019, p. 128; Uduigwomen & Ozumba, 2000, p. 122). He thus settled for epistemological relativism; a subjective interpretation of reality (Composta, 2008, p. 106). Relativism would then be all-encompassing, especially regarding the formulation of ethical theories. This is significant since traditionally, according to Plato, ‘politics is essentially applied ethics’ (Omoregbe, p. 131; Popkin & Stroll, 1993, p. 59). In this application, cognizance would have to be taken of the universal normative. In Theatetus, Socrates argues that man is not the measure of all things. Before the thematic centricity of man, is Reason. This informed Plato’s political ideas, (Nisbet, 1983, p. 8). A valid reason is presupposed fundamentally; the type that is before man. Reason points the way objectively such as would be standard for the human exercise of the faculty as a posterior event. In order words, there are principles in operation before man, which man has to endeavour to uncover as reference points to his actions. The contestation is between relativism and principles which make for universal appeal in the form of ‘some absolute and universally valid norms, which do not depend on societies and personal feelings of individuals, (Njoku, 2019, p. 128). The first issue of significance in any theorization of the state is that it has to rest on a solid foundation of universally valid truth. Where this is lacking, the political theory may have derailed methodological relevance. In The Republic, Plato denounced existing systems of government as incapable of delivery on expectations of good governance (Nisbet, 1983, p. 5), reiterating alongside Socrates, that ‘pure reason’ ought to provide the guide to political action (Njoku, 2019, p. 138). Plato preferred that politics be deferred till politicians understudy the right path to it; that is to say until they complete ‘a course’ in political philosophy (Njoku, 2019, p. 138). These responses from the Greek political theorists were in effect correlations to the negative phenomena of an epistemological movement that preferred to circumvent objective truth in their operations and the political elites that could be similarly categorized especially in Eruka, C. Raphael 73 their circumvention of the demands of pure reason in dealing with Socrates. It could be entertained that confidentially, it was epistemological relativism applied directly in political ethics that was the cause of the Socratic effect responsible for Plato’s paradigm shift in the attempt to herd politicians to school first before the forage into the pragmatic art of politics. Plato also believed that happiness lies in knowing the real sense for him, to know the real is to do it (Njoku, 2019, p. 163). Evil does not exist save in the context of ignorance since according to Plato, knowledge is a virtue (Njoku, 2019, p. 163; Uduiwomen, 2000, p. 123). One would wish that Plato’s claim were true: that is, that the human intellect always directs right the personality behind it all of the time. This is the problem of this paper and what went wrong in politician-linguism, namely that the intellect and the person can be differentiated in their apprehensions and operations accounting for real disparity in bringing into realization that which has been comprehended. What the paper posits which offers a challenge on the plane of political praxis is that one may decide to do that which is contrary to that known intellectually – thus epistemology and ethics do not always coincide. Aristotle believes that the community exists for the good of the people, for the state is a composite of its citizens (Aristotle, 2001, p. 1176: Bk: III. Ch. 1: 1275a). If this is the case for every community, then, the state, which remains the highest of political communities, exists for the sake of the highest all-encompassing good (Njoku, p. 161). The state thus stands the best chance to proffer the citizenry opportunities for attaining their foremost ends. Aristotle, Burke and Tocqueville and the 17th-century pluralists are not concerned with ideal systems as with ideal relations: not oligarchy, monarchy or democracy as such but any system in which the citizens, groups and institutions enjoy the freedom and fair treatment (Nisbet, 1983, p. 22). This explains why it is fundamentally significant to political action. All theories tend to galvanize some program of action in the state. As regards the coinciding of what’s known and what is done in Plato, Aristotle argued contrary to the position of Plato. To be able to execute the known, Aristotle argues that virtue is needed (Njoku, p. 163). Aristotle tends to give priority to the development of virtue whereas Plato would rather emphasize the priority and sufficiency of knowledge. Virtue results from the continual execution of the morally good in a way that doing good comes of habit (Njoku, p. 163). Therefore, virtue ethics should be the right guide to political behaviour. Rousseau lent weight to this view when he emphasized that learning should go hand in hand with the quest for a virtuous living (Omoregbe, 1991, p. 51). In the prelude to the emergence of modern democracies, social-political thinkers provided ideological platforms for political art. In The Leviathan, Hobbes, a monist and absolutist (Nisbet, 1983, p. 24), conceptualized a state of nature characterized by existential chaos emanating from the absence of right reason and any known moral compass (Omoregbe, p. Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 74 132). Man did not fare well in this condition. In the Hobbesian theory of the Sovereign, it was at best a return to Protagora’s theory that the individual man is the reference point about standards of measure: a clear descent into crass relativism. The Hobbesian result in the scenario is the phenomenal brevity of human life (Omoregbe, p. 132). The Hobbesian social and political fiction of the state of nature did not appeal equally or in the same way to other serious thinkers, for example, Locke, who in his state of nature, saw that natural law obtained. This was ethics in need of harnessing and implementation for everybody’s good. The responsibility of government was to implement the law of nature (moral law) for the common good (Omoregbe, p. 133). This consisted mainly of the enforcement and protection of the fundamental human rights of the people (Omoregbe, pp. 133 – 1334). In the state of nature, the concept of human rights was not delineated; thus the demand for it was absent. For Spinoza, the supreme right is that of the right to human existence, and this is available to all without injuries and conflicts if people lived according to the law of reason (Nwoko, pp. 91 – 92). Unfortunately, injuries and conflicts are rather rife since people allow themselves to be driven by forces other than reason; this development informs the need for the emergence of government to direct men’s affairs right (Nwoko, p. 92). Montesquieu states that every society would of necessity need a form of government; and the exercise of reason would eventually culminate in the formulation of positive laws (Nwoko, p. 100). Positive laws are an issue from the right exercise of human reason. It is presupposed that this exercise of human reason would be in tandem with the adumbration of natural law, giving specific prescriptions in particular areas for the realization of the greater good of the people. Seen this way, positive law is always at the service of natural law as indeed an extension of the law of nature. Natural law in some areas gives clues while positive law is meant to give specifications in particular circumstances of the human historical and existential situations. When such law allows that power resides with the people, it is democracy; if with a few then, oligarchy (Nwoko, p. 101). Other systems abound according to varied arrangements: if power resides in one man, it is a monarchy (Popkin & Stroll, 1993, pp. 60 – 61) while the absence of the exercise of any legitimate control of power results in anarchy. Kant’s political theory derives from his ethics and the categorical imperative. In the Critique of Practical Reason, Kant insists that every human action should be based on the willingness that action satisfies the maxim of universal law (Nwoko, p. 129; Popkin & Stroll, 1993, p. 39; Kuusela, 2011, p. 122). The human act should issue from pure reason that factors humanity into its choices for every choice signifies an invitation that every other person, and indeed humanity, should choose in the same way for the good of all. My choice is not mine solely; if I then choose for all, what happens if everyone else should Eruka, C. Raphael 75 similarly choose? The implication is that the exercise of human reason should attain such value-standardization as to imply the possibility of formulation of law or maxim of the welfare of humanity out of or deriving from that exercise (Kuusela, 2011, pp. 121 – 122). Kant invites man to the expansion of the horizon both in his thinking and acting. Man is invited by the Kantian vision to transcend his egotism in the rational approach to life. Human thinking should endeavour to break the barriers of selfishness, be it in politics, ethics or whatever else, onto the consideration of the universal good. Thought that does not merit this level of measure ought not to be put into action. The interesting things here are the trajectory of social and political theories which crisscross and tend to revive or re- emphasize existing ones in the course of human history. It appears that Kant in insisting that human action should derive from pure reason raised to a respectable universal platform tends to restore Plato who earlier opined that the highest knowledge must trail off in the highest moral execution of that known. J. S. Mill’s theorizations on the state derive from far-reaching pessimism. The poor state of human nature is the cause for unhappiness that characterizes the human community; such also accounts for the existence of unjust laws and human selfish exhibitions in life whether one becomes the ruler or the ruled (Nwoko, p. 168). Mill does not anchor the remediation for this state of affairs on democracy either, for the system, though it could ‘suppress’ tyranny can become oppressive itself from lack of fair representation (Nwoko, p. 168). This notwithstanding, Mill claims that representative democracy remains the best form of government in so far as all interests are represented in governance. The risk is that in the absence of fair representation, it may derail into the tyranny of the majority (Nwoko, p. 170). Mill emphasized the possibility of a majoritarian tyranny in democracy and advocated for safeguards (Stumpf & Fieser, 2003, pp 246 – 347). The implication is that majority views do not always mean that which is fair or just. If Mill thinks of democracy in this way, said to be the best of available systems, then there is here reinforcement to the need to investigate the difference between knowledge and action in political art; between political theories and the political psychology presupposed in the implementation of these theories. This paper is interested in democracy especially as it pertains to the political dispensations of emerging economies. In Western medievalism, political representation was part of large monarchies and aristocracies, and over time, this element was carried into democracy (Arua, p. 78). For purposes of immediate relevance, emphasis will, going forward, be on Nigeria’s democracy. How has politician-linguism fared in the Nigerian State? Is it part of the problem of meaning, ideology and praxis? When the politician speaks, do the people understand? When the people speak, does the politician understand them? If there is difficulty in communication between the politician and the people, does it also entail some sort of Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 76 confusion? If it is to be agreed that clear communication makes meaning stand out, then a premium should be placed on the art if progress can be expected to be made. Progress, development or improvement in the conditions cannot be expected in the presence of ambiguities, intentional conceptual misapplications for politician-propaganda motifs and outright deceptions embedded in methodological linguism. Analysis of concepts of elements of Nigeria’s foundation as a political entity To start with, significant elements of Nigeria’s foundation as a political entity are embroiled in the linguistic imbroglio. One such element is the concept of independence. The 1960 realization of independence for the country was a phenomenon that would have to last in the memory of the nation. Yet, what does it mean? The concept means many things to the diverse sub-entities. Beyond the surface of it, it would need studies to unravel the conceptual connotations of the term for different peoples of the political unit. It has been shown, for instance, that for the North, independence entails that the Muslims are not ruled by any other groups; freedom thus means freedom to enjoy Muslim rule and propagate Islam under Caliphism (Udoidem, p. 189). Within this guarded Northern concept of freedom, meaning still eludes political communication for despite years of opportunities for the exercise of power in this regard, the citizenry did not fare better. Does politician-linguism need in-house interrogation within its Northern enclave conceptualization? Does the North solely imply the interest of the elitist North or does it go beyond this political class? Issues in politician-linguism need process interpretation. No community may develop beyond the real linguistic circumscription of politics since all praxis proceeds from this. For the Igbo, the concept of independence means the opportunity and reality of re- organization of the geopolitical space of Nigeria, such that there are unhindered free trade activities and the freedom to live in any part of the country in the bid to contribute to the development and social interaction (Udoidem, pp. 189 – 190). In so far as democracy fails to provide this enabling environment, the Igbo feels that the concept of independence remains a sham. Real independence is a descending-ascending phenomenon whereby democracy ensures enablers for personal and infrastructural developments while the individual maximizes the opportunity to free one’s potential for socio-economic and political growth and advancement. The Yoruba, yet understood this concept differently where for them, it implies the absence of colonial power and the opportunity for them to step and fill in the gaps left in politics, media and other professional positions given their leverage in higher educational attainment (Udoidem p. 190). Independence here connotes the existence of structures for Eruka, C. Raphael 77 the practice of professionalism and the continued maintenance of such structures. Again for ethnic minorities, independence means something different from the above. Independence would then mean for them freedom from domination, and the freedom to participate in the determination of their affairs (Udoiem, p.190). Another concept that needs further analysis is the entity called Nigeria. It appears that the concept, of Nigeria, in the real sense, is an entity devoid of real human contents in its homogenous sense. The political unit has failed to attain substantial conceptual universalism. Politicians are real in their particularities and non-universalist affiliations. In politician-linguistic terms, ‘Nigeria’ is a nominalist-driven conceptualization. The Ockhamist movement, we are told, rejected the realism of earlier schools, thereby settling for nominalism, which entails that universal concepts are mere words, though this is at risk of over-simplification (Copleston, 2003, p. 11; Stumpf & Fieser, 2003, pp. 184 – 185). Thus the entity seemingly lacks soul and vivification. Politician affiliation to the universal values implied in the concept appears unreal; what presents substantially is the tribal, religious, cultural and political sub-regional interests. The concept of ‘Nigeria’ needs a whole hermeneutics of process comprehension whose true meaning may elude or go beyond the concept as such. Some politicians claim that although the concept exists the nation does not. Others opine that the nation is in the making, meaning that it is not yet. At least, one politician believes that Nigeria is a mere geographical expression (Awolowo). The problem is leadership (Achebe) that has refused to clarify politician- linguistic choices. The political psychology informing the existence of the nation is problematic. Until the problem is solved regarding the existential status of the said country and the truth or falsity of the concept, the course of development may not be clear shortly. Presently, the nation suffers from unfortunate inherent politician-linguistic ambiguities. The third concept constituting an element of the foundation of Nigerian polity is democracy. The definition of ‘democracy’ as ‘government of the people’ (Asiegbu, p. 16; Arua, 2009, p. 79) only suffices as an etymological explication, otherwise, there is more to it (Kazeem, 2006, p. 60). Although the concept presents in its apparent simplicity, ‘different theorists and ideologists’ hew a multiplicity of meanings out of it, perhaps due to its various typologies (Kazeem, 2006, p. 60). Nigeria’s Sani Abacha added to the concatenation when he gave the name, ‘Home-made’ to the Nigerian brand of democratic practice, later said in reality to be a contraption for corruption (Arua, 2009, p. 79). Democracy as a concept is subject to politician-linguistic centrifugation, with circumscribable particularistic and subjective process apprehension. Within the same political entity such as Nigeria, the system falls short of unanimous conceptualization. It may mean, in some cases, an instrument used by daredevil politicians to push forward Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 78 their agenda and disseminate their ideologies to the rest of the people. In all, democracy for the Nigerian state is nothing short of the structure through which politicians work to realize their concept of independence for Nigeria. It is the tool for the concretization of the ambiguous concept of not only ‘independence’ but every value system that falls within the program of the politician’s ideological subscription. Democracy is a concept in flux; malleable and capable of being directed to the wishes of particular politicians. Rousseau insists that true democracy does not exist and never will (Arua, 2009, p. 79). This is because the people have not been part of it as inherent in the concept. In its place, we have often witnessed the organized robbery, veiled dictatorship, tyranny of the worst kind, looting, expropriation and the corruption of manners that pave the way for grand- scale systemic corruption in the polity. Finally, we attempt the analysis of election as a concept. What does this concept entail? The meaning of ‘election’ is denominated majorly within the larger concept of democracy. The process of election is the assurance to the people that though they may not directly participate in political deliberations as modelled in Greek democracy, nevertheless they do so by electing those who would directly do so on their behalf. This is the substance of the definition of the concept proffered by Abraham Lincoln in his famous Gettysburg Address. The free and fair implementation of the electoral process is the stamp of the people’s relevance in political deliberations in a good functioning system of democracy. The history of the electoral system in Nigeria is replete with narratives of its dysfunctional mode, almost all of the time. Every transition period is postulated as an experience in future experimentation during which time, it is hoped that the wrongs of the preceding exercises would be righted. Nigeria seems not to have learnt lessons from the fractures and dislocations of its failed electoral system simply because the concept is riddled with politician-linguistic equivocations. Variously, election means for politicians with different political bearings: a process of selection of whoever they endorse; an opportunity that the whole nation offers to a mere clique of politicians to foist their candidates on the rest of the people; a time of flagrant intimidation and disorderly conduct on other parties and so on. The process of election means its multiplications of meanings except what it is meant to stand for in all fairness in the political system. Although the meaning is clear, politician-psychology behind its execution invests it with ultra-political interpretations that impinge on its substantial realization. To wind up this section, analyses of the concepts of the elements of the foundation of the contemporary Nigerian political system show that Nigeria has not been able to communicate effectively among its citizens what it means by the utilization of certain concepts. Opaque concepts have been deployed in the hope that they have been understood. At least, the fundamental concepts are in dire need of disambiguation. What Eruka, C. Raphael 79 has happened so far is that instead of clearing the hubris, Nigeria has chosen to work with them. No scientist would knowingly carry out experiments with faulty equipment and insist on getting the right result. Nigeria has been described analogously as people who set out on a journey to unfamiliar terrain without maps (Kukkah, 2009, p. 4). Meaning, clarifications, truth, the integrity of politician-ethnicization conduct, a sense of the common good, essentialization of the unicity of thought and action in the Kantian sense, commitment to a political culture of praxiology and altruism, the conscious attempt at the extirpation of the cult of political egotism – these would have been the maps that would have provided the sure guide in the navigation of the muddy terrain of Nigerian politics. Ideologico-praxiological analysis tangential to politician-linguism Politics operates in the context of ideologies. Ideologies play roles in their systems of value contents, contestations and prioritizations. Political competitiveness derives from politicians' commitments to ideological systems and their value repositories. At the macro level, this becomes more glaring. Global ideological delineations chart the course of globalized politics, for although politicking happens to be the immediate concern, the ideologies that inform them are ever in the background energizing the trajectory of the art, and where convenient, become the vehicle for the propagation of allying ideologies. As shown above, in the case of the politics of nations, ideologies define them, even though, most often, these may not have been as overt as they ought to be. Nigerian politics, for instance, does not operate based on constructionist ideologies as praxeological blueprints. No political party in Nigeria has clear ideological formulations; what obtains rather, is a hurried ensemble of recycled issues that continue to reoccur in seasons of elections. This appears to be another method in political linguistic rigmarole. Politicians believe in nothing save whatever lies hidden in their psyche far removed from the accessibility of the common people. Any analysis of ideology in Nigerian politics is bound to divulge confusion in meaning. Parties exist based on an amalgam of so-called ‘specific focus areas’ whereby such parties diagnose problems and issues that need political intervention and in which the party offers to intervene in the remediation of the problems. Ideological politics would imply a division of labour in issue-based interventionism; profoundly thought over and developed over time; the offering of perspectives and alternative modes of approach-cognitions for programs of political action. Ideology is not only meant to provide the bedrock for praxis; it is the purely constructionist methodological outlay of the political map; and fundamentally, it is always a paradigm in the political belief system or creed. There is mystical equivalence inherent in an ideology in that it is always believed in and committed to with passion. In Nigeria, there is no creedal explication of the political experience that can be said to transcend parochialisms. Therefore, ideological Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 80 communications in party structures are exercises in the politician-linguistic impasse. This at last is to the advantage of politicians who by this development feel free to migrate to parties at will: none of them is ever hindered by belief system or serious value affiliation. In what appears to be an emerging phenomenon in Nigerian politics, there can be spotted the intrusion of a pseudo-ideology. The problem is that this is bogged down by unusual parochialisms. Such can at best see to the deconstruction of the polity. The livestock transformation program remains an example of a pseudo-ideology until it fits into a transformational ideology of genuine political restructuring. The problem here, as in others, is politician-linguism. Proper communication is absent. What is said or passed in communication is alien to the intended meaning. Until such pseudo-ideologies are simplified in understandable politician-linguism, they may never serve the people. Rather, there could continue to obtain through their implementation social disequilibrium and political instability. We have seen that the epicentric conceptual elements of politics are deadlocked in linguistic non-circumscription. What then do we expect in the decentralized conceptual interpretations at the individual level of the politician’s world of being? How does the politician fare at the grassroots? The final consumers of politician wares are the people, who we are told, own the government in a democratic setting. The answer is simple: the mis-conceptualizations that define the foundations tend to pigeonhole and shape the mind of the politician found at the last rung at the bottom of the ladder. A system cannot cause to be that which is not contained or in any way related to its constitutive elements. The epicentricity of political impulse can at best get its elements diversified in the fields of political action. Praxis issues from the ideology of existing order. What obtains at the base is the existence of this wider field of confusion. Politician-linguism, that is, what the politician communicates to the people stands apart as mere communication without soul. To revisit Ockhamism, mere words! The true psyche of the politician is not there in that communication. There is the dichotomy of words and action: ‘ideology’ and ‘praxis’. Words sway: politicians have all become experts in demagoguery. The masses get hoodwinked onto politician-linguism. Blocs are formed and the wheel of the political machine continues to be oiled. The result is continuous motion without movement: promises not kept, infrastructures not built, security not provided, improvement in economic conditions not met, political equity not attained, disruption of the educational process, enthronement of the culture of corruption, deliberate orchestration of impunity. Asiegbu revisited some of the above in his discourse on the crisis of governance in Nigeria (Asiegbu, 2022, pp. 19 – 22). Eruka, C. Raphael 81 In the construction of the political community especially by Western theorists, the end has always tended towards praxiology. Western theorizations on the best of political community for the people can be summed up in intellectual and humanizing value- centripetalism: the proffering of insight for value-applications for human good garnered from the political standpoint. It is to impact people positively after all: to create order, ensure security, realization of the potentials of the citizenry, enthrone peace, advance development, creation of higher values or at least the maintenance of existing humanizing ones and so on. If in the case of Nigeria, the citizenry has witnessed a downturn in dividends, dispensations on end, how far have we gone? We have perhaps moved backwards instead. This calls for what else in the face of all this? The next section is an effort to provide an answer to this question. Recommendations We have so far established the ideological disconnect between politician-linguism and praxis. The people can contribute to achieving a unicity of ideological purpose in the face of this problem. To this extent, politician-linguism should be held to account. Again, the monetization of politics has contributed to the linguistic problems presently. The insatiable quest for monetary gains through politics is problematic to its success: man is an insatiable being (Aristotle, Politics, 2001, p. 1160: Bk.II: ch. 71267b). All problems arise from this. Therefore, this extremist monetary valuation needs moderation for the good of the citizens (Plato: The Republic, 1991, p. 308). With the over-monetization conundrum, Nigeria may find it difficult to extricate herself from the stranglehold of corruption and related bizarre practices. It is also about demanding the following from concerned politicians. i. In the course of campaigns for political offices, politicians should be made to back up their promises with legally worded documents showing that all that has been promised would be accomplished and where not possible, the people would see and be convinced in themselves that the fault was not theirs. The penalty should be spelt out in the document for the defaulting politician which would include imprisonment of not less than twenty-five years. This document needs to be signed by the one seeking political office and left with the people. ii. Officials of the regulatory electoral body who swindle voters of their votes in favour of the undeserving politician at any stage of the process or are found to be complicit in political fraud should face the same penalty as above, presupposing that such document has been signed before appointment to such positions. iii. Politicians that have once misled the people for the sake of personal gains or corrupt sharp practices should be banned from seeking elective offices for life. Politician-Linguism and the Facts of Post-Politics: Critical Reflections 82 iv. Defaulting politicians should be banned from holding political offices even if not elective. v. The extreme monetary influence in art needs to be checked. In this regard, the emolument of politicians should be made to be not more than 25% higher than that of the Permanent Secretaries in Federal Establishments; this to include allowances. This way people of proven character may find interest in political participation at higher levels for the sake of service. Their reward would have to be in carving a niche for themselves morally, and may also be rewarded by honours at the end of their service if need be, and indeed materially as deemed fit. vi. Orientation of the high-profile politicians in office at various stages should include visits to the nation’s Correctional Centers and big mortuaries. vii. On the other hand, politics can be made part-time engagement. Politics need not be permitted to seem like a profession in its own right; even when the art is open to all. viii. Rotation of positions at the centre would help checkmate the careless imposition of pseudo-ideological contraptions that torpedo the polity. This rotational process should be studied for replication at the sub-national levels. ix. The nation’s capital should be rotated to each of the regions every half a century till the process is completed whereby it returns permanently to an agreed central location. This is to facilitate development and make the people feel a first-hand closeness to the central government. x. Robust debate on issues should be enshrined as a necessary political culture for purposes of conceptual simplifications and accurate understanding before the spirited effort to proceed with implementation. xi. When high-profile political officials visit, the roads they have refused to fix need not be made to undergo cosmetic maintenance. Conclusion Politician-linguism tends to conceal the true motives of politicians through conceptual maneuvring. This is a problem that needs diagnosing and remedying. It is the mischief in communication. The gulf in ideology and praxis that exists between rulers and the ruled can be located in politician-linguism. If years of politicking especially within the democratic system have not ushered in the progress that has been envisaged, politician- linguism may have to be interrogated in the role it has played. The intersection of socio-political discourse and the praxis of politics occasioned in this paper tend to highlight the need for the politician-psyche to be in harmonious collaboration with corresponding linguistic value creation and their realization. This calls for the pre-conditioning of political art to the full apprehension of the need to respect Eruka, C. Raphael 83 concepts and their deployment in the field of practice. This transcends the mere grasp of socio-political theorizations. Of paramount importance is the awareness of political psychology that needs to connect the psyche and the whole person to the sacrosanctity of forms of meta-linguistic cleavage. Until this is taken seriously, politics would remain exercises in pundits and demagoguery, electorate dribbling, conceptual fault lines and the inability to lift the people and enable them to transcend social, economic and political problems. 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