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 choose wealth. Then, there is a middle ground where most of you who are reading this belong—in the middle class.
The worst class is the middle class, which has the aptitude and capacity to rise to the top but, due to fear or an unhealthy relationship with risk, will prefer to oscillate between the poor and middle class until 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 a minimum wage and would say, “I would rather be poor than steal.” Na lie.
The religious angle also helps to be poor, as a lot of them believe that all you need is faith to give you a living. Manners 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 to 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. 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 one? You won’t give me what I ask for.
You see the defeatist attitude; you see the outlook and the non-inclusive approach to life. Who will give me one? 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 that I can manage, and I will be okay. That is the attitude and aptitude of a poor man.
He won’t be as aggressive as Wike, who dangles the structure and demands a seat at the table. He will not have ideas or vision to implement; he will simply be a very powerful manager who will live on N50k per month with 5 children and lament his fate in life.
Education and the lack of it are very critical to poor people. They rarely see it as a vehicle for growth, but rather as a tool for speaking the language just enough to fill out forms and write memos requesting personal loans.
They never use education to achieve a broader worldview 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 a part of fulfillment that cuts across all three levels. You can be very wealthy and not be 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 poor man’s fulfillment stems from a delusion of contentment. It’s what you tell yourself to feel good as you 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 formulate strategies toward achieving a very powerful state of poverty.
It takes a lot of effort to stay poor, and you have to be exceptionally gifted in the science of poverty to do so.
Thank you.
The Duke of Shomolu
