Originally Posted by peterclaver2006 
This writer should have used the present Nigerian context to give us cadent impressions of who a patriot is or not. Believing that the vote robbers that duped and cheated the rest of Nigerians and now appropriate for themselves the appellation of ‘Nigeria’ are now our patriots and that those that speak against these acts of fraud are now less patriotic, is the best way of undermining Nigeria. ...The point is that when scoundrels confuse themselves to be patriots, the real patriots become victims of the state of anomie such as the one Nigeria finds herself in presently.
I agree with peterclavers perspective, and in particular with the bolded portion above. In order to make such sweeping assertions as the writer of the dissertation has made in subjectively determining who a patriot is in the Nigerian context, he should have first defined the word patriot. Failure to do so may cause our perspectives to all stem from different premises (like the proverbial blind men and the elephant). If I define patriotism differently from you, then we may argue until the cows come home, and neither one of us will give an inch because we are operating from different sides of the spectrum.
The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary defines
patriot[noun] as
a person who loves their country and, if necessary, will fight for it. The adjective is the word
patriotic which is defined as,
showing love for your country and pride in it. The sentence given as an example of the use of that word is:
Many Americans felt it was their patriotic duty to buy bonds to support the war effort.
Please note that nowhere does this sentence indicate that those who purchased the bonds all agreed with the decision to go to war, or for that matter accept war as an equitable solution to resolving conflict between nations. However, their patriotism is demonstrated in the fact that they were willing to contribute to the war effort in order to protect the sovereignty of their nation. It seems to me that the author of this dissertation is advocating blind patriotism, which I personally find to be offensive and disingenuous. the definition of the word blind in the Cambridge Dictionary is: describes an extreme feeling that happens without thought or reason (e.g. He was blind with prejudice).
I don't know where the author lives or what he does for a living. I do know that his article smacks of the "Monday morning quaterback" syndrome. Since you don't know for a fact what is in the minds of the people who are objectively critical of Nigeria's tenuous political and economic system, since you don't know what role many of them play in helping to improve life for our nations beleaguered citizens, what gives you the right to presume that they are unpatriotic because they don't see things from your perspective? We are not and will never be a communist or socialist state ruled by one-party fascists who foist their whims upon the tribe in an unwitting attempt to create a status quo that only reflects their own worldview. Be careful how you casually throw around your arguments having built them on faulty foundations!