Leaders in African countries have deep understanding of what it takes to remain in power forever. That is why they will go extra-miles to ensure that no one or group of people is able to breakthrough, so that they will rule over the affairs of men for a long time. Poverty is of a high economic value in the hands of wealthy men to control the poor.
A wealthy man is rich in all things. He has financial capacity to enjoy life to fullness. He can afford to buy all he wants without a second thought of how to get the resources to acquire them. A wealthy man has a purchasing power to get things done at his fingertips. He has it more than enough and he can lavishly spend it. But most times he is not satisfied with it because he wants something more. What he wants is called “POWER”.
To have power, you need more than money, though you can use money to get power. It is only a poor man that uses money for purchasing items to survive. Once he meets his immediate needs, he is satisfied. But to a wealthy man, you need more than that. To leave the level of wealthy to the level of being powerful, you need to keep certain set of people in a poverty level for the rest of their lifetime. To maintain and sustain your powerful position, you need to have them in your pocket; you need to re-programme their mindsets in order not to understand certain things about life that can liberate them from the state they are. You need to give them a new identity (poverty identity) and keep them in that state and see no reason to breakthrough from it. Most times, you need to do the thinking for them. You know why, it is only expedient that they are very poor throughout their lifetime, so that the wealthy man can sustain his supremacy for a long period. The poor man must be living in penury for a wealthy man to prevail.
Poverty therefore is of high economic value for a wealthy to prevail over the poor ones. It has high purchasing power that one poor man can contend with. It is important that the poor is poor so that the powerful can be powerful. If they remain poor, the wealthy man will continue to lead them.
One thing is certain and very achievable, if the poor ones can come together, reason together, agreed together, with one mind and with one common goal, they can pull down the wealthy man. But, on a contrary, the wealthy man has the money to buy their loyalty. The loyalty of a poor man is cheap and that is why they cannot dislodge a wealthy man.
When the poor ones come to a wealthy man for any help, he will never give them what will liberate the poor because he needs them in this state to control their minds, to maintain and sustain their loyalties for their lifetime.
This has been the weapon most African leaders are using to keep the masses in perpetual bondage. They have deep understanding of this and they will keep using it on the masses until the poor realize why they must come together to liberate themselves.
Why is it that they come with few bags of rice, beans, immaterial things and some cash when the election is approaching? They are the weapons to keep maintaining and sustaining the loyalty of the poor. Poverty is a very powerful tool. It keeps the powerful in power. The poor people will continue patronizing a wealthy man, queuing at his house for something to survive. What will he give them? Rice, bean, meat and other immaterial things. He does not mind attending to their insignificant needs every day. He wants them to come again and again. He will never think of liberating the poor, because if he does, he will never have them again.
This is the difference between transformational and selfish leader. A transformational leader wants to give you what will make you independent, but a selfish leader will only give you something to keep your loyalty for him and him alone, even at your peril.
If and only if, the poor can together and empower themselves, the wealthy man will lose his power and becomes of no value again. But instead of them coming together and empowering themselves and break the limitation, they will kill themselves, drag themselves, insult themselves on social media, because he has won their loyalties. No nation can be liberated until transformational leaders emerge. A transformation leader will not only give you fish, he will teach you how to get fish in order to sustain you him for your lifetime.
That is what we are lacking in Nigeria. We do not have transformation leaders, rather selfish leaders, who strive to build an empire that will sustain their supremacy for their lifetime and generation to come.
However, empowerment is the key to liberate our country. What a poor man needs first is the right and good information, not money. He needs to know that he is sitting on gold. There are hidden treasures around him he can tap into that will liberate him forever. If the poor can be empowered, our nation will be off hook of criminals in the corridors of power. That is the truth they will never tell us. All they want to do is to enslave for their lifetime.