Structural Poverty in Nigeria: Exploring the Politico-Administrative Elite Nexus

Nigeria witnessed immense national development cum prosperity immediately after independence from 1960-1966. However, the narratives changed from prosperity to poverty and, from nationalism to corrupt selfish leadership, leading to the country being ranked among the top fragile states in the world. This study traced the inherent politico-administrative elite foundations that created and are currently sustaining Nigeria's poverty, despite millions of dollars earned from oil revenue and abundant human resources. A documentary research approach was adopted. We descriptively content analyzed data sourced from the UN, Fund for Peace, UNDP, and the National Bureau of Statistics 'NBS' survey reports on poverty and underdevelopment indices in Nigeria. The findings revealed among other things that the foundations of Nigeria's poverty are tied to long military misrules, shoddy federalism, and ethno-religious divides driving the imbalances in the politico-administrative elite misgovernance system, upon which various dimensions of poverty are perpetrated against the populace. Poverty in Nigeria, therefore, is manmade and is driven by the politico-administrative elites through the instruments of public bureaucracies and other institutions of governance. Poverty in Nigeria is rooted in the 1999 Constitution, thus structurally designed and infused into the social system. We recommend restructuring; and true federalism, to pave the way for the auto-centric response of the polity to the socioeconomic realities that will cure Nigeria's poverty and underdevelopment.