Economic volatility, weak institutions mask Nigeria’s next leadership phase

Nigeria’s leadership selection process takes another monumental hit with the just concluded off-circle election in Ekiti State and other by-elections across the country.

In each election season, Nigerian voters are faced with the challenges of selecting people meant to represent their interests from the local government areas, to states, and the federal.

However, this process is often hijacked and truncated by moneybag politicians who leverage the high poverty level of the citizenry in influencing the outcome of each election since 1999.

“Vote buying early in the election was widespread, one could say, and it’s very disturbing that the issue of vote buying is still going on,” Ene Obi, the former convener of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room, said in a monitored programme on ARISE NEWS on the outcome of the just-concluded off-circle election in Ekiti State.

Obi said politicians have weaponised poverty to buy votes and manipulate Nigerians. According to her, politicians exploit widespread poverty through vote-buying schemes, which undermine the country’s democracy and electoral integrity.

“Its very sad how the politicians have put Nigerians so cheap in their faces while they are looting their treasures. It’s very, very sad what they’re doing to Nigerians,” Obi said.

She argued that poverty is very visible during the just-concluded off-circle election in Ekiti State. “Poverty is on the ground. We know that there is poverty and that is because of the irresponsibility of the political class.”

Obi also criticised the political class for weaponising poverty and urged Nigerians to reject inducements from politically exposed individuals.

She argued that the Nigerian electorate should recognise their responsibility in protecting the country’s democracy. “If you don’t rescue it by your own choices, because you can refuse.”

According to her, both those offering inducements and those accepting money contribute to the problem. “So when we are talking of vote buying, it’s both the buyer and the person who is being bought that is responsible.”

She insisted that the role of poverty in driving electoral misconduct cannot be ignored. “Weaponisation of poverty should not be overlooked.”

In an article titled, ‘The Weaponisation of Poverty by the Political Class in Nigeria,’ Garpiya Garpiya, a Nigerian scholar, argued that the consequences of poverty weaponisation are far-reaching, encompassing political manipulation through electoral corruption and governance failures.

According to him, security challenges include insurgency and communal conflicts, social impacts such as human rights violations and restricted access to education and healthcare, and economic ramifications, including stunted growth and increased inequality.

He recommended the inclusion of impoverished individuals in the political process through education, advocacy, and support for grassroots initiatives to address poverty weaponisation in Nigeria.

Communication standpoint

“From a communication perspective, weaponising poverty means using people’s economic hardship as a political tool to influence their opinions, loyalty, and voting decisions during elections,” Chukwudinma Okoji, a communication specialist based in Kwara State, said.

He said further that rather than persuading citizens through good policies, performance, and meaningful public debate, politicians exploit poverty by offering money, food, or other incentives in exchange for political support.

“As we saw in the last governorship election in Ekiti State, when a moving van was throwing bread on the road, and citizens were scampering to pick up.

“It was such a pathetic state as one never knew poverty had been so weaponised to this level,” Okoji said.

According to him, this act automatically shifts political communication by the people from discussing national development to meeting immediate survival needs, which make citizens more vulnerable to propaganda, misinformation, and empty campaign promises.

“The eventual effect is a weaker democracy and slower national development. When poverty becomes a political advantage, there is less commitment to solving it, while citizens become increasingly dependent on political patronage instead of demanding accountability and good governance from their leaders,” Okoji said.

He argued that weaponisation of poverty has weakened public trust, reduced informed political participation, and created a cycle where economic hardship is continuously used to shape public opinion and electoral outcomes rather than being addressed through genuine development policies.

Social implications on overall process

Moses Lawal, Lagos-based social commentator, said that weaponisation of poverty is basically aimed at partial or full control of citizens politically or economically by the government and opposition.

According to him, this end-point is achieved primarily by denying citizens education, affordable healthcare, and/or any other basic needs, which ends up stripping off the citizens’ dignity and making dependence on crumbs a fleeting lifeline.

“With this achieved, it becomes easier to influence and control such citizens. Yes, the citizens have a choice on paper, but in reality, that power of choice has been sold for a miserly morsel of porridge,” Lawal said.

According to him, the mind of the citizen would only be an extension of the political ambition of the giver.

He argued that even the opposition has equally mastered the art of poverty weaponisation in another way. “Their own speciality is weaponisation of poverty of knowledge.”

Lawal opined that a good percentage of citizens lack knowledge of the policies of the government that are geared towards a better standard of living. “Good examples are NELFUND, CREDITCORP, health interventions (e.g 80% subsidy for kidney dialysis in selected federal hospitals and expansion of health insurance for vulnerable Nigerians).”

According to him, the opposition exploits the emotions of the citizens by either making them completely oblivious of government policies or propagating discouraging falsehoods against these policies. “Some citizens depend on opposition figures for information.”

Psychological undertone

Johnson Ibidapo, a Lagos-based social psychologist, said that when leaders weaponise poverty they deliberately employ economic hardship as a tool to control and manipulate people’s behaviours and choices. “Such weaponisation can also influence the political preferences of people.”

He added that poverty can make voters more vulnerable when they lack access to education and information; and as a result of this, elections may end up favouring leaders who weaponise poverty.

“As a psychologist, we have theories such as Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which can help explain such deliberate control. Maslow’s theory stated that lower-needs such as the need for food, shelter and clothing must be satisfied before higher-order needs such as the need for self actualisation can become desirable,” he said.

According to him, basic human needs like food, shelter, and security are exploited to manipulate the people on the back of weak institutions. He added that when people lack these essentials, they cannot think long-term or cope with pressure.

Ibidapo said that government agencies saddled with the responsibility of checkmating incidents of vote buying and other vices cannot function as expected, until they become truly independent of the influence of the current administration.

“The war against corruption and by extension vote buying and what have you, cannot be won when it is one-sided.

“To truly win the war, those agencies must be able to act independently and carry out their duties regardless of vested interests, especially of any particular ruling party of the day,’ Ibidapo said.