Nigerian Elite and the Culture of Primitive Accumulation

Friday Osaru Ovenseri-Ogbomo,Stanley Edebiri Egharevba

doi:10.46281/aesr.v4i1.211

Friday Osaru Ovenseri-Ogbomo, Stanley Edebiri Egharevba

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.46281/aesr.v4i1.211

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Abstract

Nigeria is endowed with vast human and material resources to engender development but it still continues to luxuriate within the confines of a top speed in reverse to oblivion. As its relics, neocolonialism has given birth to industrialization, urbanization and militarization of the political process which generally has created “sudden billionaires” on one end of the ladder (elected or appointed public officials) and extremely poor masses (unemployed graduates and depressed masses) at the other end of the ladder. This paper basically exposes the developmental retrogressive outlooks of the masses due to primitive capitalist accumulation by the few elites who have piloted the affairs of the nation.

Highlights

The Nigerian state is endowed with enormous human and material resource capabilities, sitting on a vast land area of 923,773km2 with vast solid minerals reserve, wonderful vegetations and fertile soil for growing different agricultural produce
Criminalization of the Nigerian State: Elite-Underdevelopment Nexus Nigeria is a nation endued with all the paraphernalia of development but the basic visible feature or condition of the Nigerian state is an unprecedented poverty, decayed and decaying infrastructure, massive unemployment and underemployment which are worsened by social vices of varying magnitudes due to political self aggrandizement
Handing over political power to indigenous leaders who had copied this pattern of leadership further exacerbated the ills as the leadership became the twin devices of subjugation and exploitation, characterized by aggressive looting of the common patrimony of the masses with a reckless abandonment which manifested in the dehumanization of the people

Summary

Introduction

The Nigerian state is endowed with enormous human and material resource capabilities, sitting on a vast land area of 923,773km with vast solid minerals reserve, wonderful vegetations and fertile soil for growing different agricultural produce. It has over 160 million people of diverse cultural backgrounds Despite these paraphernalia of development, the basic visible feature or condition of the Nigerian state is an unprecedented poverty, decayed and decaying infrastructure, massive unemployment and underemployment which are worsened by social vices of varying magnitudes due to political self-aggrandizement. In the view of Ake (1996), “ politics is warfare and governance spoils of war...” This is further exacerbated by the cultural value of primitive accumulation of wealth in Nigeria where there is celebration of wealth as a precursor to the factors working against the war against corruption 4. Criminalization of the Nigerian State: Elite-Underdevelopment Nexus Nigeria is a nation endued with all the paraphernalia of development but the basic visible feature or condition of the Nigerian state is an unprecedented poverty, decayed and decaying infrastructure, massive unemployment and underemployment which are worsened by social vices of varying magnitudes due to political self aggrandizement. With reference to the parlous nature of the country, it is obvious that a very large chunk of the said money has been mismanaged by military dictators and selfish politicians (members of the ruling elite entrusted with the power to manage our resources) who have milked the nation dry (Anele, 2015)

Year of Prosecution

Conclusion and Recommendation