Citizens’ Emotional Migration

Abstract

The emotional state of citizens towards democratic social contract is considered in the interplay between national leadership and development expectations of citizens. Four categories of emotional bigotry among citizens - hyper-plosive, vocal-plosive, docile, and the docile-plosive were analysed to determine emotional change, conceived as “emotional  migration”. Emotions of Nigeria citizens were mapped, and found to have moved from positive feelings of love, faith and hope to the negative states of hate, faithlessness, and hopeless. The study identified that emotional changes progressed gradually into bigotry under a continuous circumstance of insensitive leadership. And that the more the migration to other emotional categories, the harder it is for emotional bigots to return to the initial positive attachments to collective goal and happiness. Leaders were advised to be emotional intelligent/sensitive to citizens/followers emotions, and to apply emotional security and emotion building approaches to help leaders/governments, rebuild positive emotions and patriotic spirit.

Key words: Social contract, Citizens emotion, Emotional migration, emotional bigots, leadership-followership, Nigeria.