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NIGERIAN SURVIVAL IN THE EMERGING ‘SAPA’ CULTURE AND 

ADMINISTRATION: THE MARXIAN INTERROGATION 

 

Philip Osarobu ISANBOR 

Department of Philosophy, Seminary of All Saints, Ekpoma, Nigeria. 

Email: philip.isanbor@uniben.edu 

& 

Paul Olorunsola FOLORUNSO 

Department of Philosophy, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. 

Email: folorunsopaul30@gmail.com 

 

ABSTRACT 

The “Sapa” is a socio-economic syndrome of living and existing (situations occasioned by 

a very high cost of living and the sustainability of institutional corruptions and 

mismanagement of public funds and resources) that has becoming a culture of survival, as 

a symptom of Nigeria’s unequal economic structure, which strongly emerged during 

Buhari’s presidential administration and been sustained by Tinubu’s presidential 

administration. Such culture of survival in the midst of wants highlights the need for 

policies that reduce wealth gaps and improve opportunities for young people. Viewing 

“sapa” through a Marxist lens reveals the urgency for economic reform to address the 

challenges facing Nigeria’s youth. “Sapa” is more than just slang; it reflects real economic 

hardships experienced by Nigerian youth due to high unemployment, inflation and limited 

social support. Existing research on poverty and inequality in Nigeria tends to focus on 

statistics and policy impacts, but it rarely considers the cultural expressions and language 

that capture the emotional and social dimensions of these economic struggles. Employing 

analytic, dialectic and hermeneutics methods of analysis, the conclude by providing a new 

perspective by examining "sapa" as a cultural indicator of class based frustration and 

discontent, increasing the understanding of poverty's impact on Nigerian youth, and thenm 

suggesting the imports of proper management of capitalistic consciousness in government 

and governance for the improvement of masses’ welfares and development.  

Keywords: Class struggle, Capitalism, Development, Economic inequality, Marxism, 

Sapa. 

INTRODUCTION 

In a quest to attain and sustain great economic height and stability, man has employed several 

strategies and approaches. Philosophers have given their views on equality, economic stability 

and political facts (Isanbor & Izibili, 2024; Isanbor & Ukagba, 2024a). Karl Marx is one 

philosopher who worked on checkmating the economic and political statues of the state. 

Judging from the works of other philosophers; John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacque 

Rousseau who in the social contract theories explained human’s nature in reference or in 

relations to his or her political will and power, and in industrial relations, his or her negotiating 

power in trading his or her labour power and values in the means of production (Isanbor, 2023). 

For some thinkers, the state of nature was and still brutish, selfish and greedy, and like the 

owners of the means of production who maximize production profits to the detriment of the 

welfare of the worker. As such, the oppressed masses and workers do whatever they have to 

just to survive and to get what they have as in ethical hedonism. 

mailto:philip.isanbor@uniben.edu
mailto:folorunsopaul30@gmail.com


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Sapa is a term coined and commonly used by Nigerians to mean chronic hunger which is as a 

result of economic hardship and poverty. This kind of hunger entails lack of the basic needs of 

life as a result of the economic state of the country (Isanbor & Izibili, 2024; Isanbor & Ukagba, 

2024a). As a culture, it is a group of signs or symptoms whose appearance together usually 

indicates a particular social disorder along the courses of living A pattern or series of events, 

observed qualities etc. characteristic of a particular problem or condition (Isanbor & Ojebun, 

2022; Ihensekhein & Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & Ukagba, 2024b). Sapa can now be seen as a 

sign of the effect of the social class struggle in the country which have led to poverty and 

economic hardship to those who happen to be in the lower class.  

The paper is hinged on analyzing Marx’s theories on class struggle and inequality, the socio-

economic problems and their effects on the youths and the country at large, including the 

danger which capitalism as an economic system has posed the nation, on the effects of Sapa 

culture as an Tinubu’s administrative enigma. Though not conclusive, this work will with the 

theory of Karl Marx attempts an overview of the present economic situation of the country; 

poverty and chronic hunger being its effects on the citizens. 

MARXIST THEORIES ON CLASS STRUGGLES, EXPLOITATION AND 

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 

Marxism is a socio-economic theory developed by Karl Marx (1818-1883). He is the German 

economist and political philosopher. With his works and public advocacies, he stated that the 

struggle between different social classes is the main influence of political and social change, 

and that communism will eventually replace capitalism (Isanbor, 2023; 2024a). Karl Marx in 

the first chapter of his work, ‘the communist manifesto’ gives a grim picture of human history 

as a continuous struggle between the haves and the have-note, the exploiters and the exploited 

(Lawhead, 2015). In the modern era and if brought to the present State of Nigeria, it is between 

two classes; the bourgeoisie who are the capitalists, owners of production industries as well as 

the middle class citizens who benefit from the present economic system of the country 

(Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982). While the second half of the society is made up of 

the proletariat who owning no property must survive by selling their labor as commodity to the 

elite class so as to survive.   

With the concern Marx had for the children, women and men of the working class of his time 

who in his work, ‘Capital’ he took time to explain how the suffer and fight daily to survive, 

one would wonder what he would say about the present economic state of Nigeria where the 

working class do all in their power; working day and night from place to place and are still 

denied their pay for the job done (Isanbor, 2023; 2024a). The striving of some members of the 

society always conflicts with that of others. This striving has been experienced through times 

and geographical locations and the nature of this conflict differ with the various situations, 

modes of life of the classes into which the society is divided (Lawhead, 2015). 

Since the great French revolution through the modern age, the victory of the bourgeoisies has 

shown itself very obviously to be the main cause of certain trouble in the economic system of 

the state. Karl Marx also in his communist manifesto explains that among all the classes that 

confront the bourgeoisies, only the proletariat is really a revolutionary (Isanbor, 2023; 2024a). 

Others are conservative as they only fight to hold the existence of their own means of 

production or industry as the case may be (Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982).  These 

middle class only act as revolutionary only to protect their future interest and not the imminent 

interest of all. There therefore fight so as not to fall to the level of the proletariat. Marx 

explained how every class struggle is a political struggle and the position of each separate class 

(Lenin, 1930). 



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In an attempt to define class difference in the society, Lenin held that the most distinguishing 

factor is their relationship to the means of production (Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982). 

He refutes the idea of some bourgeois sociologists who hold that the difference between these 

classes is that the capitalist class (the bourgeoisies) receives profit from the means of 

production while the workers (the proletariat) work to receive their wage (Isanbor, 2023; 

2024a). A capitalist is not who he is because he receives profit but because he owns a means of 

production and the wage worker also is not such just because he works to receive a wage but 

because he is denied the means of production and has to work for a capitalist (Lenin, 1930). 

The mode of distributing the social incomes and the size of share depends on the relationship 

with the means of production and this as Lenin noted, is in most cases is formalized by the law 

(Isanbor, 2023). The relation of the means of production defines the place of a class in a 

historically determined system of social production and its role in the social organization of 

labor. The class struggle becomes very evident as the exploiters oppress the exploited while the 

exploited work hard to get rid of exploitation and the exploiters (Konstantinov, Bogomolov & 

Gav, 1982). This struggle is at first not seen by the inattentive eyes but with time especially in 

times of revolutions and counter-revolutions, it becomes obvious and affects both the political, 

economic and ideological life of the society as it begins to acquire the characters of an armed 

struggle. These exploiters see the act of exploitation as necessary to increase their wealth and 

to maintain their social standard (Zotov, 1985: 115). 

Some have agreed that the class struggle have done well in the society. For instance, that if not 

for this struggle, there cannot be transition from the old socio-economic system to the new. 

Another point is that, though this struggle have claimed lives and led to damaged properties, it 

has affected the exploiters more than the exploited (Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982). 

This view, Marx and Engels have totally rejected stating that the inhabitation of the factors of 

class struggle have greatly motivated the development of antagonistic societies (Isanbor: 2023; 

2024a). As also stated in the Marxist-Leninist theory of society, capitalism cannot just collapse 

automatically but will lead to a fight between the rising members of the working class and the 

business owners. Here the workers will be fighting to go back to the primitive age the ‘golden 

age’ where there was no private ownership of properties while the capitalists will fight to 

defend and protect their owned properties (Zotov, 1985). This statement towards the fight from 

the Marxist-Leninist party is soon to be the case of the country Nigeria as the number of the 

proletariat has now risen to a great number that so many can no longer feed themselves and 

their families, while a very few members are getting richer by day, acquiring properties 

worldwide. 

MARXIST ANALYSES OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS IN DEVELOPING 

NATIONS   

Marx believed that Western society had developed through four main epochs: primitive 

communism, ancient society, feudal society, and capitalist societies. Primitive communism is 

represented by the societies of pre-history and provides the only example of a classless society 

(Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982). From then on, all societies became divided into two 

major classes: masters and slaves in ancient society, otherwise known as slave society, Lords 

and Serfs in feudal society and Capitalists and Wage Laborers in capitalist society (Zotov, 1985: 

119). Marx's theory of work and his attitude toward capitalism led him to his theory of human 

self-alienation. Marx believed that workers became alienated from themselves because of the 

three exploitative features of capitalism. First, since work can be a form of self creativity, it 

should be enjoyable, Marx reasoned (Isanbor & Izibili, 2024; Isanbor & Ukagba, 2024a). Yet, 



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because the capitalists squeeze every possible cent of profit from the workers, they make the 

conditions of work intolerable (Zotov 1985: 119). Consequently, instead of enjoying work or 

the act of self-creation, the members of the proletariat grow to hate the very process by which 

they could refine their own natures.  

In all, Marx believed that capitalists must exploit the workers to produce a profit. The capitalists 

force the workers to sell the product of their labour and then use that product against the 

workers to exploit them further (Isanbor & Ojebun, 2022; Ihensekhein & Isanbor 2023; Isanbor 

& Ukagba, 2024b). This, Marx claimed, forces the workers to regard their own product, 

something that is actually part of them, as alien and even harmful to them; thus, it becomes 

another form of self-alienation (Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982). Marx must have seen 

the present situation of Nigeria to have postulated this theory as it gives the exact fate of the 

Nigerian economy. Alienation reaches its height in capitalist society, where labor is dominated 

by the requirements of capital, the most important of which is the demand for profit. These 

requirements determine levels of employment and wages, the nature and quantity of goods 

produced, and their method of manufacture. Capitalism condemns to beggary and hardship 

millions of needy peasants and urban poor, many thousands of lumbering proletariats who 

always suffer more than the proletariat (Konstantinov, Bogomolov & Gav, 1982). Workers see 

themselves as prisoners of market forces over which they have no control. They are subject to 

the impersonal mechanisms of the law of supply and demand. They are at the mercy of the 

periodic rise and fall that distinguish capitalist economies (Mutuila, 2013). The workers, 

therefore, lose control over the objects they produce and become alienated from their product 

and the act of production. Their work becomes a means to an end, a means of obtaining money 

to buy the goods and services necessary for their existence. 

THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF YOUTH IN NIGERIA 

The socio-economic and political environment in Nigeria poses a great challenge to the youths. 

Economic and social statistics present a thought provoking picture that leaves much to be 

desired. Almost half a century after flag independence, the economy continues to be dominated 

by the primary sectors such as agriculture, oil and minerals. This is partly because the country 

has not been able to create an environment for high value added economic activities (Isanbor, 

2016; 2017, Isanbor & Egbonu, 2024; Isanbor & Edema, 2022). There is low domestic capital 

formation and declining direct foreign investment, with the exemption of the oil and gas 

sectors, until recently very heavy indebtedness, high unemployment and the informality of the 

economy where the majority of its people live in great poverty (Derrida, 1994: 75). Nigeria 

performs very poorly in terms of global economic competitiveness. The country lacks basic 

social and physical infrastructure. As a result, most people on the country have no access to 

basic services such as potable water, electricity, good sanitation, roads and healthcare. All of 

this is coupled with a high illiteracy rate, especially among women. The lack of access to basic 

medical care occurs against a backdrop of ravaging diseases; a situation which has become 

exacerbated with the advent of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

The consequences of not fully developing and harnessing youth’s potential could be dire, 

including significant economic losses, armed conflict, and political and social upheaval and 

instability as demonstrated recently by the Arab Spring. Youths are more likely to become 

frustrated because of legitimate grievances, including a lack of employment opportunities, low 

educational attainment, little participation in decision making and low social mobility (Derrida, 

1994). In this context, greedy and opportunistic politicians could even exploit these grievances 

by involving these frustrated youths in violent overthrows of legitimate governments creating 

massive instabilities that could limit the economic growth of Africa’s countries, especially 



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Nigeria (Isanbor, 2016; 2017, Isanbor & Egbonu, 2024; Isanbor & Edema, 2022). Specifically 

these challenges are discussed below:  

Unemployment and Underemployment: A large number of youths are unemployed 

worldwide. The economic growth rate has not been sufficient to create enough employment 

opportunities to absorb the increasing labor force of about 500,000 annually. Only about 25% 

of youths are absorbed, leaving 75% to bear the burden of unemployment. Furthermore, some 

of those absorbed in the labor market have jobs that do not match their qualifications and 

personal development goals as highly evident in Nigeria (Mutuila, 2013). This new level of 

unemployment that is more like a well-calculated deregulation of a new market today deserves 

another name for it has lead to what the in French is called the “new poverty” which is in this 

work termed “Sapa”  

Health Related Problems: Currently, due to increasing effects of poverty and very lack of the 

provision of health care facilities, the masses, especially the children and youths, have been 

very susceptible to various types of diseases (Mutuila, 2013). Young people ages 15-24 have 

the highest infection rates from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The youths 

face a myriad of health related problems, including widespread malaria, malnutrition, unsafe 

abortions, HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), drug and substance abuse as 

well as poor access to health services. 

Increasing School and College Drop-Out Rates: In the developing world, nearly one-third 

of youths are illiterate. Many youths drop out of school and college due to the high cost of 

education and increase in overall poverty levels, poor returns on investment in education and 

lack of a re-admission policy for teenage mothers, among other reasons (Mutuila, 2013). These 

reasons for the increased school drop-outs are bordered on the increased rate of the low income 

earnings by the parents and guardians. These were sustained by the emerging Sapa culture.     

Crime and Deviant Behavior: Evidence suggests that youths with few economic prospects 

and limited political voice are more inclined to be radical, fundamentalist, revolutionary, or to 

abuse drugs or commit suicide (Mutuila, 2013). Due to idleness, especially after formal 

education, the youths become restless and try anything. Some end up in crime or with deviant 

behaviors; prostitution, fraud, kidnapping, ritual killings. Owing to their vulnerability also, the 

youths are exposed to sexual abuse, child labor and other forms of economic exploitation under 

the guise of employment and support. There is currently little protection from the authorities.  

Limited Participation and Lack of Opportunities: About 17 million women ages 15-19 give 

birth every year and have more children than women who start childbearing later. The risk of 

birth complications is 25 times higher for girls under age 15 and two times higher for those 

between ages 15-19. Despite their numerical superiority, youths are the least represented in 

political and economic spheres due to societal attitudes, socio-cultural and economic barriers, 

and lack of proper organization. Not even sport facilities are made available for youths to send 

their time productively and finding their talent. The youths cannot exploit career, business and 

education opportunities available because they lack access to ICT, due to unavailability 

especially in rural areas, and high costs (Odeh & Okechukwu, 2014). They then make use of 

their technological knowledge to defraud and steal from people “Yahoo! Yahoo!” and they do 

this using for their justification the unemployment in the country. This extends to the point that 

they now use fetish means such as going to witch doctors to perform sacrifices for their 

fraudulent activity, joining different cultic groups and even engaging in ritual killing just for 

the progress of their cyber crime. 



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Limited Social Security: Many youths, especially those in the urban areas, do not have access 

to decent housing in environments that favor healthy living. Many of these homeless people 

are not given the privilege to participate in the democratic life of the state (Derrida, 1994). 

Among these factors that increase the economic hardship in Nigeria also includes personal 

greed of the political leaders as seen in; the excessive number of advisers and senior advisers, 

unscrupulous salaries and allowances paid to them, numerous official vehicles and foreign 

trips, introduction of security votes for governors, undisclosed extra budgetary expenditure and 

high payment for all those around them (Ihensekhein & Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & Onwudinjo, 

2024). These expenses have a great deed of effect on the citizens and the civil servants as most 

times before the payment of salaries get to the, the allocated money for that would have been 

exhausted by those on the top thereby leading to the civil servants not being paid for various 

month as though they work for nothing in Nigeria. They are denied their just wage thereby 

falling into hunger and suffering.  

CAPITALISM: ECONOMIC INEQUALITY AND SUSTAINING THE “SAPA” 

CULTURE IN NIGERIA  

Capitalism which is an economic system in which the means of production, exchange and 

distribution of goods and services are in the hands of private persons, providing or borrowing 

the necessary capital and taking profits after all the costs of the production have been met 

(Dibie, 1999: 26). Hence, the elements of the capitalist system are the profit motive, wage 

labor, economic competition and private property which Marx takes to mean the means of 

production; small or large, owned by these capitalists (Isanbor & Igboin, 2022; Isanbor, 2024b). 

The goal of these capitalists is to sell their produced commodity so as to get money to produce 

more to make more profit, then reinvest and keep accumulating wealth by exploiting wage 

labors. The lower the laborer is paid, the more profit the capitalist makes (Dibie, 1999: 27). 

This hunger for more by the capitalists does not only bring conflict between them and their 

works but also an unhealthy competition with fellow capitalists which at the end will fall back 

to the workers who will be extorted so as to make more profit (Lawhead, 2015: 415).  

 

Hence, the fact that Nigeria as a country also practices or employs this system on its own leads 

to the retention of this  Sapa as the bourgeoisie who control production and availability of these 

goods and services which are essential for human’s daily life may begin to hoard them thereby 

making the people suffer lack (Mutuila, 2013). Other times also, due to their quest for so much 

profit, they may fix prices that will be too much for the common person to afford and following 

the economic state of the present Nigeria, people now spend more than they earn. This implies, 

in the affirmative, the values of the common saying among common Nigerians that, “the rich 

keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer” (Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & Idemudia, 

2024). This saying is now very obvious as the rich and the elite in the society are still able to 

build expensive houses and live lavishly while the poor are finding it more difficult to fend for 

themselves and their families. The bourgeoisies continue to compromise their employees by 

reducing or delaying their payments of salaries and by denying the masses of what they are 

entitled to. 

From analysis, we will understand that Karl Marx must have seen himself as a prophet since 

almost all he said of the economic system “Capitalism” which Nigeria practices are obviously 

surfacing. The reality of abject poverty which as currently nicknamed as ‘Sapa’ has become 

the fate of the common Nigeria. In the name of governance, the rich as the politicians are doing 

as much as exploiting the poor to increase their wealth (Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & Idemudia, 

2024). This also extends to the country’s political system where the electoral commission who 

should be the accountable to the people is now compromised; these bourgeoisies use their 

money to make their way to victory in their political carrier then when they get there they loot 



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as much as they can, to replace their campaign expenses and to make profits.  They are the 

capitalist because when they embezzle public finds they invest them in production processes 

for profit thereby placing those whose money has been embezzled to be the workers. The 

youths suffer this since they are the labor force and are employed to work instead of being 

given the opportunity to be productive. 

Many global problems have a particularly strong impact on youths. In some cases, such as the 

spread of diseases or frustration due to political disenfranchisement, these problems have far-

reaching consequences (Isanbor & Igboin, 2022; Isanbor, 2024b). Focusing on youths will 

substantially boost efforts by Nigeria and other nations to; stop the spread of, and heal the 

suffering, caused by diseases, create a stable global economic system that equitably benefits 

people in all nations, both poor and rich, Promote political stability based on participation and 

human rights, limit the number of economic and war related refugees and internally displaced 

people, stem the tide of fundamentalism, terrorism, and hatred, Moderate population growth, 

Promote equal rights for all. 

Marxism holds that the capitalist system inherently exploits the working class, creating a 

perpetual struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Sapa culture as a syndrome, 

rooted in systemic poverty and economic inequality, can be interpreted through this lens of 

Marxian conception of alienation, and resulting to the less self-worth of the Nigerian youth in 

their pursuit of greener pastures in the foreign countries where they are largely unwelcomed. 

In Nigeria, the vast wealth generated from natural resources like oil is concentrated in the hands 

of political and economic elite, while the majority of the population remains impoverished 

(Isanbor & Igboin, 2022; Isanbor, 2024b). The youth, often unemployed or underemployed, 

experience Sapa as a manifestation of this exploitation. The disparity between the ruling class 

and the proletariat in Nigeria aligns with Marxist notions of economic exploitation. The failure 

of wealth redistribution policies, coupled with systemic corruption, reflects the dominance of 

bourgeois elite controlling the means of production and resources. 

Marx’s concept of alienation describes the estrangement of workers from the products of their 

labor, their own humanity, and society under capitalism. In Nigeria, alienation is evident in the 

disconnection between the youth’s educational qualifications and the economic opportunities 

available. Sapa syndrome represents the reflections of the alienation of many Nigerian youths, 

as the promise of upward mobility through education is undermined by systemic 

unemployment and underemployment. The Nigerian economy’s overreliance on oil and the 

neglect of other productive sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing, exacerbate this 

alienation. The youth, unable to engage in meaningful labor, remain trapped in cycles of 

poverty, mirroring the alienation as Marx described (Isanbor, 2023). Hence, Marx’s historical 

materialism emphasizes the role of economic structures in shaping societal development. 

Nigeria’s post-colonial economic trajectory, characterized by dependency on foreign capital 

and neoliberal policies, has perpetuated underdevelopment (Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & 

Idemudia, 2024). The emerging and sustaining Sapa culture as a syndrome is a direct outcome 

of these structural imbalances, where the majority lacks access to resources and opportunities. 

Marxism provides a framework for understanding how Nigeria’s integration into the global 

capitalist system has entrenched economic dependency, leading to chronic financial instability 

for the masses. 

While Marxism emphasizes class struggle, it may oversimplify the complexities of Nigeria’s 

socioeconomic landscape, especially in the effectual presence of economic scarcity and high 

cost of living, as occasioned by the corruption and mismanagement of public funds and 



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resources by the elites in powers (Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & Idemudia, 2024). The Nigerian 

reality is shaped not only by class but also by ethnicity, religion, and regionalism. These factors 

often intersect with economic inequality, complicating the narrative of a binary struggle 

between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Marxism’s focus on class does not adequately account 

for the ways in which ethnic and religious divisions are manipulated by elites to maintain 

power, diverting attention from economic exploitation (Isanbor & Igboin, 2022; Isanbor, 

2024b). We can infer so strongly that Marxism as a socio-economic theory of development 

primarily addresses formal labour markets and industrial production, especially as these factors 

of development dependence on national interests, but a significant portion of Nigeria’s 

economy operates in the informal sector of the economy and other models of socialization. The 

informal economy, characterized by small scale trading, artisanal work, and subsistence 

farming, sustains millions but often lacks stability or legal protections. Sapa culture is 

exacerbated by the precarious nature of informal work, which Marxism does not fully address. 

The theory’s industrial focus makes it less applicable to economies like Nigeria’s, where 

informal labor dominates. 

Marxism was developed in the context of industrializing Europe and does not provide clear 

solutions for post-colonial nations grappling with the dual legacies of colonialism and global 

capitalism. In Nigeria, Sapa culture is tied to Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), debt 

dependency, and global trade imbalances issues that require nuanced solutions beyond Marxist 

prescriptions of proletarian revolution or state control of resources. Marxism’s prescriptions 

may be too idealistic or impractical in addressing the entrenched corruption and weak 

institutions of post-colonial states like Nigeria (Isanbor, 2023; Isanbor & Idemudia, 2024). 

Hence, Marxism often downplays the role of culture in shaping economic behavior. In Nigeria, 

societal expectations, such as the financial obligations of extended families, amplify the effects 

of Sapa syndrome. These cultural factors, which influence spending habits and financial 

stability, are not adequately addressed within a Marxist ideology.  

Capitalism for concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few but does not adequately 

account for the role of political corruption and institutional weakness, which are endemic in 

Nigeria.Sapa syndrome is exacerbated by systemic corruption, where state resources meant for 

development are siphoned off by corrupt elite. For example, Nigeria’s oil wealth, which could 

be redistributed to alleviate poverty, is frequently embezzled by government officials. The 

absence of robust regulatory frameworks and enforcement mechanisms enables exploitation 

and inequality to persist unchecked. This institutional decay is a legacy of colonialism, 

compounded by the elite’s deliberate undermining of governance structures (Isanbor, 2023; 

Isanbor & Idemudia, 2024). Marxism’s focus on economic systems does not sufficiently 

address how corruption and weak institutions amplify economic inequality and perpetuate 

poverty. It offers no clear roadmap for rebuilding governance in nations like Nigeria where 

institutional collapse has intensified socio-economic instability. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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CONCLUSION  

The application of Marxism to the Sapa culture in Nigeria provides a view for understanding 

the systemic economic inequalities and chronic financial instability faced by many citizens, 

particularly the youth. Marxism shows the exploitative dynamics of capitalism, the alienation 

of labor, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of privileged elite, all of which are evident 

in Nigeria’s socio-economic structure. Through this perspective, Sapa syndrome or culture will 

become a constant reality in the minds of suffering Nigerian youths if the Nigerian political 

and socio-economic situations remain the same. It can be viewed as a direct consequence of 

the country’s integration into a global capitalist system and its internal failure to equitably 

distribute resources to affect positively the lives of Nigerians, and which the current Nigerian 

governments have not to be judged or ready to change. 

 

 

 

  



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