A Rentier State And The Predatory Elite: The Dilemma Of Nigerians

Abstract

The conspiracy between the hegemonic predatory elite and the rentier stale among most (ess developed societies such as Nigeria has in recent times constituted a source of dilemma and concern to the oppressed citizens. The above scenario arises in the face of the endless rapacious expropriation of the wealth of these Nations by their elite among whom the Nigerian case has taken the front burner in various development discourse. In Nigeria the predatory elite is alleged to have colonized the state and the governing apparatuses for vested interests through their opportune access to the wealth of the land. As much as liberal scholars of modernization theory may wish to eulogize the sparsely identified decaying concrete jungles of ill conceived landmarks of development in the land of Nigeria, the evidence of poverty, decaying infrastructure, insecurity, mass unemployment and other vices that ravage the people in the midst of plenty exists among the citizens to buttress the contentions against the state which have culminated into its being called to question. This report is therefore part of the ever increasing efforts at an exposition of some of the horrendous conditions of life among the people. This study therefore sought to establish facts that justified the vexing issues being orchestrated by the Nigerian state’s descent to a puppet status in the hands of the predatory elite who; having entrapped it have continued to employ various mechanism of wealth expropriation to impoverish the people. Based on the paradigm of class analyses it was established that the convivial relationship between the predatory elite and the Nigerian state is sustained in consort with state bureaucrats, technocrats and political, office holders through a mechanism that facilitates the exploitation of the masses in the interest of the elite. This process having persisted for ages in Nigeria and having elevated corruption to a state craft was synthesized in this study and established as unacceptable conditions ‘of life to Nigerians that deserved lasting panacea. Accordingly some recommendations were made in the areas of ideological revolution by Nigerians based on a paradigm shift to egalitarianism as alternative development roadmaps for the general good of all Nigerians.