Yesterday, @DavidHundeyin published a wonderful piece on @BusinessDayNg about #Africa's resource nationalism - https://bit.ly/3g9M7uN 

There's a lot of talk about #Nigeria's current leadership and how it is "socialist". I argue that it is not - https://bit.ly/3g5oZxq 

It was quite significant coming out the same day that @HouseNGR talked about forcing @MultiChoiceGRP, a private company that is responsible for most of #Nigeria's satellite television viewing, to dance to the tune of anti-capitalists. https://bit.ly/31mizpj 

This came not long after @JasonNjoku raised the alarm about @nbcgovng's new standards that will force people to give away content that they've paid for. https://twitter.com/JasonNjoku/status/1270695917855944705

So it was not surprising when the brilliant @_SirWilliam_ did a Twitter thread about faux socialism in #Nigeria. Some people, such as @JasonNjoku, call it "champagne socialism" https://twitter.com/_SirWilliam_/status/1276530682290937859

The thread pointed out that #Nigeria's "socialists" are more concerned about luxuries than equity in the distribution of resources for all Nigerians.

So, I stopped agreeing with @_SirWilliam_, @DavidHundeyin and @JasonNjoku.

#Nigeria's elite does not practice socialism.

As per Marx, socialism is a philosophy characterised by social ownership of the means of production, workers' self-management of enterprises, collective ownership, and the public good.

Socialism involves the state taking care of those who are left behind, either by their lack of ability, or whatever other reason and for this to work, since it is collective ownership, the state must tax everyone, the wealthiest paying the highest.

Of course, like anything run by human beings, there are different strains of socialism, ranging from the benign democratic socialism practised in places such as #Denmark and #Norway, to the Stalinism that is practised in #NorthKorea.

But it's all on a spectrum, and to my mind, #Nigeria is not on any part of this socialist spectrum.

You see, to be on the socialist spectrum, a country has to have certain characteristics, and the first of these is some form of accountability.

Accountability starts from the most basic question of counting  -  how many are we in #Nigeria?

I have seen consumption datasets from different FMCG operators in #Nigeria, and unless we have up to 50 million people who live the way their ancestors did, there is no way the population of Nigeria is 200 million.

So if we are not 200 million people, how can we be a properly socialist country and tax those who need taxing, and help those who need help?

No, #Nigeria is not socialist.

Now, there are three other systems that define what Nigeria is.

In feudalism, society revolves around relationships that give all the land to a wealthy class in exchange for the labour or services of the unwealthy class.

In #Nigeria, there is something called the Land Use Act, which essentially means that we are all serfs.

All the land in #Nigeria belongs to something called government.

They can kick us off "our" land at any time they so wish, for any frivolous reason they come up with.

A plutocracy is a society that is controlled by people of great means.

You see it in the fact that nothing ever really happens to any of #Nigeria's super-rich unless they step out of line with respect to those who are even more powerful than they are.

#Nigeria has elements of feudalism and plutocracy, but there is another system that even more closely resembles what we have.

The word "kleptocracy" is derived from the Greek words for "thief" and "rule".

Essentially a kleptocracy is a government that has corrupt leaders who use their position to steal from their country and grow their own personal wealth and power.

Unlike actual socialism which requires a strong state in order to be able to properly tax wealth and then redistribute said wealth, none of these three, feudalism, plutocracy or kleptocracy is concerned with any form of accountability.

All three are more concerned with the illusion of state strength rather than real strength, hence the moment you can display a considerable measure of violence, the Nigerian state will no longer attempt to put you in your place, but will co-opt you into the state structure.

All three are simply concerned with regime security, and nothing else.

All three, as a function of their very DNA, create a state where the citizens are entitled, and do everything they can to become a part of the moneyed, and thus secure class.

No, #Nigeria is not socialist.

Nigeria is a combo of feudalist, plutocrat and kleptocrat, with kleptocracy being the dominant form here.