Poverty for Sale: How Nigerian Politicians Buy Power with Hunger and Ignorance
They do not need to snatch every ballot box to stay in power. They only need to keep you hungry, broke, and politically blind. In Nigeria today, poverty is not a failure of government. Poverty is the strategy of government. Illiteracy is not an accident. It is the tool. This is the unspoken secret of Nigeria's corridor of power. Political actors have discovered that the easiest citizen to rule is the one who is too poor to say no and too illiterate to ask questions. And for years, they have manufactured that citizen in millions. The deliberate manufacture of poverty A politician who wants to be worshipped must first create a worshiper who has no choice. The formula is simple and wicked. For four years, deny the people jobs, good roads, stable electricity, and functional hospitals. Let small businesses collapse under multiple taxation and harsh policies. Let graduates roam the streets for years after NYSC. Let the price of food swallow the minimum wage. Then, a few months to elect...