Opinion article by Duke of Shomolu, Joseph Edgar
Poor people are their own inventions. In my life, I have come to the realization that people choose where they want to be in life – poor or rich.
The vast majority deliberately choose to be poor while a tiny minority chooses wealth. Then, there is a middle ground where most of you who are reading this belong- in the middle class.
The worst set are the middle class who have the aptitude and capacity to climb into rich but out of fear or an unhealthy relationship with risk will rather be oscillating between poor and middle class till they die.
Being poor is a science. People actually work hard to remain poor. They do this by having the wrong attitude towards life, a defeatist approach to risk, and a non inclusive outlook on life and living.
They wait to be ‘helped’. They will rather beg for a morsel than strive. They have this huge sense of contentment and can survive with minimum wage and would say I would rather be poor than steal. Na lie.
The religious angle also helps being poor as a lot of them believe that all you need is faith to give you a living. Manner will drop in the form of free food from the church – 39 died in Port Harcourt waiting for that- welfare and other such philanthropic activities give them the buffer.
My cousin, who graduated before me and whose father was a professor and went to some of the best schools in the land, has chosen to be poor.
He says, I want to start a business and I say how much do you need and he says N20,000 and I say what kind of business will N20,000 do for you and he says it’s palm kernel and it’s very lucrative as I would be making N7k a week.
I say why not look for N200k and grow big he screams noo. Who will give me? You won’t give me if I ask.
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You see the defeatist attitude; you see the outlook and the non inclusive approach to life. Who will give me? He asks me.
So, the person who has chosen to be poor is an expert at justifications for his state. Everything is wrong; Nigeria is too hard; he is igbo or kanuri They laid me off, the system is wicked, and they just don’t understand him
So ‘help’ me get a job make I manage, and I will be okay. That is the attitude and aptitude of the poor man
He won’t be as aggressive as Wike, who danms the structure and demands a seat at the table. He will not have ideas and vision to execute; he is just a very powerful manager who will live on N50k a month with 5 children and be lamenting at his fate in life.
Education and the lack of it are very critical to poor people. They mostly never see it as a vehicle for growth but an instrument to use to speak the language just enough to fill forms and write memos asking for personal loans
They never use education to achieve a broader world view and see themselves in positions of power and impact and strive to attain those levels.
In this guise, they are still better than the middle class, who use education to maintain the middle level of servitude. The Bank Managers, the Admin Heads, the civil servants, and all those who will still be looking for jobs in their 50s
In all of these, there is the part of fulfillment that cuts across all three levels. You can be very wealthy and not as fulfilled as poor men .
I see maiguards seated on mats with their whole village sharing a big bowl of kunu. They are fulfilled, and the rich man who is about to acquire his latest PJ is also still feeling like something is missing.
But don’t let fulfillment fool you. The fulfillment of the poor man comes from a delusion of contentment. It’s what you tell yourself to feel good as watch your children starve.
What I’m trying to say basically is that being poor is a cautious effort. You work towards it, plan for it, and strategies towards achieving a very powerful state of poverty.
It’s hard work to remain poor, and you must really be gifted in the science of poverty to remain poor.
Thank you
*Duke of Shomolu*
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