Poverty, Corruption and the Nigerian State: The Path Not Followed

The words “poverty” and “corruption” side by side appear paradoxical especially in a country like Nigeria which parades strategic natural resources some of which appeal to the cupidity of advance industrial economies. Poverty amidst affluence is a manifestation of capitalist relations of production which creates class division in the mode of production. It is little wonder, therefore, that all the strategies adopted in tackling corruption and poverty by successive regimes within the socio-economic formation have not yielded appreciable results. Adopting the Marxist political economy analytical tool, this paper posit that poverty and corruption in Nigeria are man-made; thus, any genuine drive towards poverty alleviation and corruption reduction must go beyond rhetorics, newspaper and television posturing, to liquidating obsolete production relations which perpetuates poverty and corruption and holds down the levers of progress. Poverty alleviation and corruption extirpation this paper opines, is a historic task of the masses, the class that wallow in poverty. It will be an apt irony, indeed class suicide the paper maintains, to expect the head of a capitalist consortium to eliminate corruption and reduce poverty in a peripheral capitalist economy which adores primitive accumulation. The path not followed is therefore revolutionary - liquidate obsolete production relations. Keywords: Poverty alleviation, Checkmating corruption, Capitalist production relations, Socio-economic formation, historic task of the masses, obsolete production relations