Opinion
Poverty: Manipulative Tool Of Oppressive Ruling Class
Poverty has been seriously weaponised to achieve total control of the masses by their rulers. And the poor have been made to believe by state operators, who in the first place rendered them poor and hopeless, that they are the only ones that can change their conditions for good. They get them close, just enough to exercise influence and control, throw chaff and crumbs as to the chicken, in quantities barely enough to keep them from dying, deceive them into keeping the hope alive to remain attached to their apron strings, and then pull them to any direction they wish.
For instance, is there anyone who is busy and self sustaining that would have time to attend all the meetings, rallies and party events by the hypocritical power elite, or go to their homes to spend hours to fawn at them, shouting “Honourable!” “Leader!” Capacity! clap, sing, drink and dance for hours, just for caps, T-shirts or some few cups of rice or packets of noodles? Idleness makes for such availability. That is why they are never serious at creating any mass employment for the youths. That is why you see 60-year old attending without shame party youth meetings. He is idle, jobless, economically impotent, totally with no means to assert anything and a beggar. He is totally hopeless but is made not to realise that who actually is responsible for his situation is the man he vainly looks up to for a change in his fortune. He is thus fooled to develop the strongest type of the Stockholm syndrome for his captors and oppressors that he now sees as his messiah.
For instance, when I first came home to Igbo-Etiti, I saw many who have been under the political ‘boyiboyiship’ of some so-called leaders for decades. Note they exist everywhere and not just my place. They had given their all. And now aged and progressing towards their graves, they have nothing to show for these many years of political servitude and enslavement. Their entire lives are a wreck; arrested and systematically destroyed by some wicked leaders who from the onset never had any real intentions to help them progress beyond the level of the carpet. Why? They need them exactly there to function optimally as minions and ground holders, as they and their children fly far and thrive, enjoying the limitless perks of the various positions they navigate from one to the other.
The most heart-rending part of this is that some who are seen as very useful and effective in some ways in the political activities of these types of leaders, are deliberately made and kept poor. These associates are made to look special but in actual sense are of no real substance. They are given hollow relevance and are left at that level they are neither rich nor poor. Their captors never give them any real job even when they can easily do so beyond the ones that will create a semblance of motion, without movement. Real jobs would lead to being free and possibly independent. And this means the loss of a political tool of high utility.
This has become so annoyingly pervasive that a lot of very wretched people are now friends and associates of these big men of power, they follow around to sing for and hail in shameless shows of public adulation. They look well fed from the continuous food and drinks made available to them all the time, but have nothing to fall back on the moment their political umbilical attachment to their benefactors are severed. As the first to get “palliatives,” they consider themselves highly privileged and lucky to be associated with the big man, never bothering to consider that it was not palliatives that gave the man his mansions and SUVs. This is just as they never bother to pause to ask themselves what those that get palliatives truly are; that the hopelessly poor reduced to near refugees in their own rich homelands and are like the proverbial man in the river that could not wash the soap suds off his eyes.
Fortunately though, more are beginning to ask themselves how they came to this sorry pass. Even while they still keep their attention on the rice and noodles their tormentors occasionally bring, they are now beginning to connect them with their abysmal conditions. That was why the last election was as revolutionary as it was, with many politicians getting the boot from the people who no longer clap as they steal them blind and give them crumbs. The people are gradually realising how they rendered everyone poor and drained of any real zeal to bother about whatever they do in office.
For sure, poverty weakens the people in many ways, to the advantage of their oppressors in power. A poor folk will be too hungry to bother about his patriotic duties and obligations as a citizen.
He would thus easily switch allegiance from the impoverished community to the political crooks who give him ‘surviving palliative’ to just keep him alive and under control. He fights anyone at his behest, including his fellow wretcheds of the earth, to get his attention, hoping to get more patronage. As that never comes to permanently help him, because it would empower the poor folk to gravitate out of his sphere, the eternal trap remains.
So, the typical politician we have in Nigeria, for instance, cannot empower his thug alive to grow above doing that as no one would do the job of thuggery for him when the time comes. But, folks are beginning to understand why their children are never thugs. They are realising it is because, thuggery is more dangerous than it is sustainable as a career.
So, that day the people would fully realise these tricks and manipulations of the political elite would be when their emancipation would come. It is good that the awareness is on the increase. The people are no longer given to the bandwagon followership of every politician as integrity and track records of trust in public service now matter. For sure, many more would still be rejected in the coming polls.
Amaechi, a contributor wrote in from Port-Harcourt.
By: Wordshot Amaechi
The line that separates betrayal and corruption is very thin. Betrayal and corruption are two sides of the same coin. Like the snail and its shell they are almost inseparable. They go hand-in-globe. Betrayal and corruption are instinctive in humans and they are birthed by people with inordinate ambition – people without principles, without regard for ethical standards and values. Looking back to the days of Jesus Christ, one of his high profile disciples-the treasurer, was a betrayer. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ for just 30 pieces of silver. One of the characteristics of betrayers is greed.
So, when on resumption from his imposed suspension, the Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminilayi Fubara threatened to bring permanent secretaries who were found complicit in “defrauding” the State during the days of Locust and Caterpillar regime, he did not only decry a loot of the Treasury but the emotional trauma of betrayal perpetrated by those who swore to uphold the ethics of the civil service. Governor Siminilayi Fubara had least expected that those who feigned loyalty to his administration would soon become co-travellers with an alien administration whose activities were repugnant to the “Rivers First” mantra of his administration. The saying that if you want to prove the genuineness of a person’s love and loyalty feign death, finds consummate expression in the Governor Fubara and some of the key members of the State engine room
Some of those who professed love for Governor Siminilayi Fubara and Rivers State could not resist the lure and enticement of office in the dark days of Rivers State, like Judas Iscariot. Rather, they chose to identify with the locusts and the caterpillars for their selfish interest. Julius Caesar did not die from the stab of Brutus but by his emotional attachment to him, hence he exclaimed in utter disappointment, “Even you Brutus”. The wound of betrayal never heals and the scar is indelible. Unfortunately, today, because of gross moral turpitude and declension in ethical standards and values, betrayal and corruption are celebrated and rewarded. Corruption, a bane of civil/public service is sublime in betrayal. The quest to get more at the expense of the people is the root of betrayal and sabotage.
This explains why Nigeria at 65 is the World’s capital of poverty.
Nigeria is not a poor country, yet, millions are living in hunger, abject poverty and avoidable misery. What an irony. Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies and most populous nation is naturally endowed with 44 mineral resources, found in 500 geographical locations in commercial quantity across the country. According to Nigeria’s former Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Olamiekan Adegbite, the mineral resources include: baryte, kaolin, gymsium, feldspar, limestone, coal, bitumen, lignite, uranium, gold, cassiterite, columbite, iron ore, lead, zinc, copper, granite, laterite, sapphire, tourmaline, emerald, topaz, amethyst, gamer, etc. Nigeria has a vast uncultivated arable land even as its geographical area is approximately 923, 769 sq km (356,669 sq ml).
“This clearly demonstrates the wide mineral spectrum we are endowed with, which offers limitless opportunities along the value-chain, for job creation, revenue growth. Nigeria provides one of the highest rates of return because its minerals are closer to the suffer”, Adegbite said. Therefore, poverty in Nigeria is not the consequences of lack of resources and manpower but inequality, misappropriation, outright embezzlement, barefaced corruption that is systemic and normative in leaders and public institutions. According to the World Poverty Clock 2023, Nigeria has the awful distinction of being the world capital of poverty with about 84 million people living in extreme poverty today.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data also revealed that a total of 133 million people in Nigeria are classed as multi-dimensionally poor. Unemployment is a major challenge in the country. About 33 percent of the labour force are unable to find a job at the prevailing wage rate. About 63 percent of the population are poor because of lack of access to health, education, employment, and security. Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) speculated that unemployment rate will increase to 37 percent in 2023. The implications, therefore, is increase in unemployment will translate to increase in the poverty rate. The World Bank, a Washington-based and a multi-lateral development institution, in its macro-poverty outlook for Nigeria for April 2023 projected that 13 million Nigerians will fall below the National Poverty line by 2025.
It further stated that the removal of subsidy on petroleum products without palliatives will result to 101 million people being poor in Nigeria. Statistics also show that “in 2023 nearly 12 percent of the world population of extreme poverty lived in Nigeria, considering poverty threshold at 1.90 US dollars a day”.Taking a cursory look at the Nigerian Development Update (NDU), the World Bank said “four million Nigerians were pushed into poverty between January and June 2023 and 7.1 million more will join if the removal of subsidy is not adequately managed.” These startling revelations paint a grim and bleak future for the social-economic life of the people.The alarming poverty in the country is a conspiracy of several factors, including corruption. In January, 2023 the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International, in its annual corruption prospect index which ranks the perceived level of public sector corruption across 180 countries in the world says Nigeria ranked 150 among 180 in the index. Conversely, Nigeria is the 30th most corrupt nation in the ranking. It is also the capital of unemployment in the world.
Truth be told: a Government that is corruption-ridden lacks the capacity to build a vibrant economy that will provide employment for the teeming unemployed population. So crime and criminality become inevitable. No wonder, the incessant cases of violent crimes and delinquency among young people. Corruption seems to be the second nature of Nigeria as a nation . At the root of Nigerians’ poverty is the corruption cankerworm.How the nation got to this sordid economic and social precipice is the accumulation of years of corrupt practices with impunity by successive administrations. But the hardship Nigerians are experiencing gathered momentum between 2015 and 2023 and reached the climax few days after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who assumed power as president of Nigeria, removed the controversial petroleum subsidy. Since then, there is astronomical increase in transport fares, and prices of commodities. Living standard of most Nigerians is abysmally low, essential commodities are out of reach of the poor masses who barely eat once a day.
The Dollar to Naira exchange rate ratio at one dollar to N1,000, is the most economy-unfriendly in the annals of the history of Nigeria. The prohibitive prices of petroleum products with the attendant multi-dimensional challenges following the removal of the subsidy, has posed a nightmare better to be imagined than experienced. Inflation, has been on the increase, negatively affecting the purchasing power of low income Nigerians. Contributing to the poverty scourge is the low private investment due to.unfriendly business environment and lack of power supply, as well as low social development outcomes resulting in low productivity. The developed economies of the world are private sector-driven. So the inadequate involvement of the private sector in Nigeria’s economy, is a leading cause of unemployment which inevitably translates to poverty.
Igbiki Benibo
In today’s fast-paced, hyper-competitive world, the pursuit of success and growth has become an all-consuming force. Individuals, organisations, and nations alike, are locked in a perpetual struggle to achieve more, earn more, and surpass their rivals. Yet, beneath this relentless drive for progress lies a silent danger—the risk of self-destruction. This perilous pattern, which I call the self-destruct trajectory, describes the path taken when ambition and growth are pursued without restraint, awareness, or moral balance. The self-destruct trajectory is fueled by an insatiable hunger for more—a mindset that glorifies endless expansion while disregarding the boundaries of ethics, sustainability, and human well-being. At first glance, it may appear to promise prosperity and achievement. After all, ambition has long been celebrated as a virtue. But when growth becomes the only goal, it mutates into obsession.
Individuals burn out, organisations lose their soul, and societies begin to fracture under the weight of their own excesses. The consequences are everywhere. People pushed beyond their limits face anxiety, exhaustion, and disconnection. Companies sacrifice employee welfare and social responsibility on the altar of profit. The entire ecosystems suffer as forests are cleared, oceans polluted, and air poisoned in the name of economic progress. The collapse of financial systems, widening income inequality, and global environmental crises are all symptoms of this same relentless, self-consuming pursuit. To understand this dynamic, one can turn to literature—and to Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. In one of the novel’s most haunting scenes, young Oliver, starving in the workhouse, dares to utter the words: “Please, sir, I want some more.” This simple plea encapsulates the essence of human desire—the urge for more. But it also mirrors the perilous craving that drives the self-destruct trajectory. Like Oliver, society keeps asking for “more”—more wealth, more power, more success—without considering the consequences of endless wanting.
The workhouse itself symbolises the system of constraints and boundaries that ambition often seeks to defy. Oliver’s courage to ask for more represents the daring spirit of human aspiration—but it also exposes the risk of defying limits without reflection. Mr. Bumble, the cruel overseer, obsessed with authority and control, embodies the darker forces that sustain this destructive cycle: greed, pride, and the illusion of dominance. Through this lens, Dickens’ tale becomes a timeless metaphor for the modern condition—a warning about what happens when ambition blinds compassion and growth eclipses humanity. Avoiding the self-destruct trajectory requires a radical rethinking about success. True progress should not be measured solely by accumulation, but by balance—by how growth serves people, planet, and purpose.
This calls for a more holistic approach to achievement, one that values sustainability, empathy, and integrity alongside innovation and expansion
Individuals must learn to pace their pursuit of goals, embracing rest, reflection, and meaningful relationships as part of a full life. The discipline of “enough”—knowing when to stop striving and start appreciating—can restore both mental well-being and moral clarity. Organisations, on their part, must reimagine what it means to succeed: prioritising employee welfare, practising environmental stewardship, and embedding social responsibility in the core of their mission. Governments and policymakers also play a vital role. They can champion sustainable development through laws and incentives that reward ethical practices and environmental responsibility. By investing in education, renewable energy, and equitable economic systems, they help ensure that ambition is channeled toward collective benefit rather than collective ruin.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provides a tangible pathway for this transformation. When businesses take ownership of their social and environmental impact—reducing carbon footprints, supporting local communities, and promoting fair labour—they not only strengthen society but also secure their own long-term stability. Sustainable profit is, after all, the only kind that endures. Ultimately, avoiding the self-destruct trajectory is not about rejecting ambition—it is about redefining it. Ambition must evolve from a self-centred hunger for more into a shared pursuit of the better. We must shift from growth at all costs to growth with conscience. The future will belong not to those who expand endlessly, but to those who expand wisely. By embracing restraint, compassion, and sustainability, we can break free from the cycle of self-destruction and create a new narrative—one where success uplifts rather than consumes, and where progress builds rather than burns.
In the end, the question is not whether we can grow, but whether we can grow without losing ourselves. The choice is ours: to continue along the self-destruct trajectory, or to chart a more balanced, humane, and enduring path toward greatness.
Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi
