Journal of Philosophy and Culture

No society can survive outside its culture and tradition. The preponderance reality of this claim reveals the need and essence of cultural values and traditions in advancing the course of a nation. Therefore, this paper interrogates the possibility of approving traditional oath-taking with particular reference to Yoruba as a panacea to ‘democratic corruption’ in the Nigeria political space. This necessitates a conceptual narrative of ‘democratic corruption’ within the purview of democratic principles vis-à-vis its operation in Nigeria. The paper adopts the analytical and critical methods of philosophical investigation to advocate the adoption of traditional oath-taking in curbing ‘democratic corruption’ in Nigeria. It hopes that when this is done, ‘democratic corruption’ would be reduced drastically while on the other hand, it will help in stabilizing the political stance of the nation. National correctional services such as life and social skills aims to rehabilitate and integrate offenders into the communities where they came from with a purpose of balancing societies and enabling offenders to overcome economic, social and personal challenges that may come their way. Such programs have a great impact on society because education thereof denotes change. This study examines the experiences of ex-offenders after being released from lawful custody and sent back to their communities. Using a qualitative approach, designed with convenience and criteria sampling techniques, five (5) released and reintegrated offenders, rehabilitated through vocational education and training. Offenders felt that, families and communities showed rejections. Initial isolation and stigmatization from society was also noted as employers are often reluctant to hire former offenders. In some cases, the absence of stable housing allows an ex-offender to feel a routine in a safe environment. It is recommended that policy makers within the Department of Correctional Services in Windhoek, Namibia should generate and improve on existing policies to help released offenders obtain their self-esteem, confidence and self-respect. It is further recommended that social workers may educate families and societies about the support released offenders need. The Correctional facility should have a better release plan with community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations to make services available after release. Racial constructionists tend to make three claims about race: (1) races have their origin as social constructs-that races arise at a particular time in history; (2) races were either created with the purpose or have had the effect of creating hierarchies of power that require treating socially constructed groups in distinct ways; and (3) biological racial realism is false. These claims amount to the larger claim that because races have been (and are) social constructs, they must continue to be social constructs, and that as social constructs races cannot be (or become) biological. In this work, it is assumed the first two claims, and that the third and larger claims can be false. This work provides reasons for inferring possible conditions that would produce biologically real races from certain racial constructionists’ claims, the tenability of epigenetics, culture and identity, and institutional racism. Undoubtedly, many modern nation-states seek to achieve a better form of democratic governance. The African nation-state is not an exception. However, the attempt by African nation-states to achieve the ideal form of democratic governance has been especially problematic. The real problem, as we see it, is that because of the forces of colonization and neo-colonization, Africa especially has scarcely had the opportunity to articulate and practice an uninterrupted democracy that accords with her indigenous political values and contemporary political experience. The upshot of this failure is the myriad of governance problems that plague contemporary African nation-states. Adopting both a descriptive and normative approach in this paper, we aim to uncover valuable aspects of traditional African politics which have been jettisoned in the politics of today. We further discuss why such worthwhile elements need to be refined and incorporated into contemporary African democracies. We analyze the traditional Fante governance system as a model of consensual democracy rooted in the African traditional concept of statehood that must be re-enacted to suit the practice of nation building in Africa today. Thus, we re-echo the largely held view that consensual democracy shows positive prospects for the issue of substantive representation in African politics today. democracy for the African context that meaningfully adopts a consensual approach to national governance. It engages some of the challenges to be encountered and proffers some responses to them.