Political Economy and Social Capital of Feeding The Poor, by Hashim M. Suleiman
Making the economy better and employing the poor has far more inferior political capital than feeding the poor with billions of naira of their money.
When election comes, a gainfully employed poor man is too difficult to induce compared to a poor man who’s fed during his religious holy month.
A better economy means more employment opportunities for the poor. That, my friends, would spell doom to electoral bandits.
Meanwhile, using billions of naira from public coffers to feed the poor means hooking the poor unto opiated syrup that’s highly addictive and difficult to get rehabilitated from.
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Feeding the poor is music to the ears of political dacoits who’ll certainly exploit feeding the poor to amass more political capital against next election circles.
Well, the danger is not only on the feeding itself but on its capacity to limit the thinking of the fed. The fed becomes blind, bold and boastful and are ever ready to fight those showing them alternative ways. Weaning a baby off its mother’s cholesterum is always a Harculean job.
Indeed, the political economy of feeding the poor is always at the expense of the fed while the feeder continues to maximise politico-economic profit of social bonding with the people he cheats on.
We should not be surprised when next election circle comes and bags of rice, spaghetti and vegetable oil become the sole point of campaign rhetorics.
For now, there is nothing as painful as satar hurar Badakkare.
Hashim Muhammad Suleiman, PhD is a Mass Communication Scholar
