When I say that there is an exclusive Nigerian identity fostered by the state, this is what it looks like. The national solidarity is engendered by patronage through oil blocks and monthly transfers. The average Nigerian lives at the margins of the state, participating by proxy.
https://twitter.com/shittu10/status/1399622598665949185
When a part of Nigeria says they are marginalised, they often mean to say that the representives of their ethnic group through whom they broker their participation have been poorly treated by the patronage network.
In actual fact, all of Nigeria is marginalised, save the few.
In actual fact, all of Nigeria is marginalised, save the few.
The patronage system and all its corollaries including federal character, rotational presidency and fuel subsidy are designed to be exclusive and are built on the fantasy of trickle down economics.
The problem with trickle down economics is that it SEVERELY underestimates the human capacity for greed and benefit capture.
So, even when we accuse the North of capturing benefits, its not benefits that go to the average citizens in the North. The national breakdown of poverty incidence provides proof of this. It is all a conversation about proxies and what proxies are getting.
It is all extremely foolish really, because marginalised citizens fight each other in hope of getting more crumbs. But the political elite are neat eaters. Crumbs rarely fall from the table.
So, when I say restructuring, I mean transfers of power and control from the center that disband this patronage network and gives control back to the citizen. The patronage network structure for brokering participation in the state is wicked and unsustainable.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
