Nigerian masses are the citizens who drive the country’s economy, and are being short-changed on a regular basis by the system. They toil day and night to produce the wealth of the geo-polity, but get maximum penury and gloom in return, for their efforts both at the public and private levels of engagement. A few Nigerians – members of the ruling oligarchy lay siege to the ordinary people. These oligarchs and their friends are the ones reaping the fruits of the labour of the masses, who are of course, inside the deprivation trap. The attitude of the ruling class is not unconnected to our European slave trade encounters coupled with colonisation that followed later. In other words, both external (neo-colonial) and internal factors are responsible for the deprivation trap that keeps the ordinary Nigerians down. Deprivation trap is tantamount to an idea of hell on earth.
Poverty is a universal. It is neither Western nor Eastern. This underscores the reason why despite the socio-cultural sophistication of most European countries and North America as well as some Asian geo-polities like China and Japan, poverty continues to occupy a space in their vocabularies of popular essence. But the intensity and capacity to tame poverty vary from one country to another. Thus, for example, more than half a million people were homeless in the US as of 2016. Indeed, the number was much higher in 2010 or thereabouts, before it began to reduce due to government’s positive interventionist policies. Homelessness is one index of extreme poverty. These very poor Americans are still living on the streets, inside vehicles and in temporary shelters. However, the number is negligible when compared to the entire American population of over 325 million humans, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s report on November 3.
Similarly, Nigeria as of November 3 has a population estimate of over 192 million (2.53 percent of the total world population). Out of this figure, about 112 million citizens, are experiencing dire poverty or near-complete destitution. They live below poverty level (less than one dollar daily) according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Therefore, the Nigerian experience of material poverty is very critical and it needs urgent attention.
Monumental poverty remains a devil to wrestle with, despite the fact that Nigeria has launched in recent years four satellites into space. Aside from this, Nigeria has crude oil reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels as well as incredible 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Consequently, the Nigerian leadership system that is generally bereft of vibrant ideas and vision, can afford to be second to none in pampering its political class by paying its federal parliamentarians or National Assembly members, the highest salaries in the world. This translates to a basic wage of 122,000 pounds. It doubles what the British parliamentarians earn. It is also painful to note, that Nigeria from the eve of its political independence in 1960 to-date has received at least $400 billion in foreign aid. This is about six times what the U.S. pumped into the project of reconstructing the entirety of Western Europe after World War II. But despite this, at least 70 percent of Nigerians are living from hand to mouth.
It is an irony, that contemporary Nigerian masses, despite their spirit of hard work, can be trapped in a cycle of maximum material poverty. Most families can no longer provide for themselves in terms of such basic needs as food and shelter, due to chronic low incomes and hostile business environment. Life to most Nigerians today, is like a hell. More and more Nigerian masses are being isolated from social infrastructure like good schools, health care system and employment opportunities. They are also extremely vulnerable, leading to their over-dependency on the few rich individuals within the same community. This situation leads to several forms of child abuse, prostitution, and human trafficking. There is need to critically analyse the above external and internal factors, as a pre-condition for developing appropriate strategies to crush or at least reduce such ugly scenarios to the barest minimum.
The economic and socio-political performance of Nigeria cannot be neatly separated or excluded from the European slave trade entanglements and colonial experience, which some analysts belonging to the school of minimalism, would want us to ignore. It is submitted here, that Nigerians can only gloss over this reality at their own peril. Our development discourse must create a space for Europeanisation. It has become a part of our national patrimony. Every human society has to learn from the lessons of history, in order to avoid as much as possible, the danger of repeating the mistakes of the past. Colonisation promoted ethnic and to a limited degree, religious divisions and tensions. The European colonisers used a “divide-and-rule” mechanism to destroy the age-long, indigenous Nigerian culture of caring and sharing. They replaced our ideology of communalism with individualism embedded in economic exploitation and political oppression. This was done by using differentiated “favours” and penalties to win and enjoy local loyalties. The numerous ethnic tensions, mistrust, distrust, misjudgements and misconceptions as well as the general accentuated division we experience today, have their deep roots in our colonial past.
The European slave trade and colonial entanglements were the cause of Nigeria’s de-industrialisation as from the late 15th century. Before the advent of Europe, the territory later christened Nigeria experienced robust industrialisation. There was good archaeological evidence of profound dramas of human technological progression in the Nok Valley region of Nigeria. The settlers of this area, same as other parts of Nigeria were masters of iron metallurgy (smelting and blacksmithing) as far back in time as 500 BC. They advanced from purely making and using stone technologies to iron productions without any assistance from outside. By this period, many parts of Europe were still at the Stone Age level of civilisation. This means that Nigeria was once ahead of parts of Europe. It is hard to believe the story, but the archaeological record is our witness.
This historical fact including others underscores the reason why Africanist scholars abhor and reject the racist theory called Social Darwinism or Evolutionism. According to this theory, Nigeria – a microcosm of Africa, was unchanging technologically and culturally and was therefore, backward until the advent of Europe. That is to say, that Nigeria was on the bottom rung of the ladder of civilisation until Europe came to civilise it. The central point of the colonialist and neo-colonialist argument was/is that Europe should be commended for coming to help Nigeria via the lens of colonisation. It is pertinent to note here, that the coming of Europe with scrap iron among other items and services, gradually led to the collapse and/or neglect of our indigenous industrial behaviours. The culture of dependency started from this period and the menace is still with the country up to now. The scenario brought about the promotion and prolongation of Nigeria’s raw material economy – an anathema to sustainable industrial behaviours.
It is lamentable that the Nigerian government up to now is merely hewing wood and drawing water for the hostile international economic system while Nigerians continue to die of starvation on a daily basis. Again, the various governments down the ages have been taking foreign loans, gifts and grants. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with this, provided the monies are spent in a prudent manner. But this is not the case in Nigeria. Many abandoned projects arising from external loans dot the country’s landscape while the masses groan under the weight of huge foreign debts with their poisonous economic implications. Although Nigeria is a component of the global village, its participation in it (international community) has to be critical. No foreign aids are value-free. This government, at least for posterity sake, should dance with the developed world in a critical fashion. Everything now is on the table of our dear President – Muhammadu Buhari, who has been destined by Providence to lead Nigeria (at this critical point in its chequered history), out of the woods. It is advisable for him, to be careful of die-hard, sycophantic admirers and/or advisers who would never tell him the truth about the state of the nation. President Buhari can still become Nigeria’s Churchill or Mandela even as the clock ticks.
- Prof. Ogundele is of Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan.
