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A Rentier State and the Predatory Elite: The Dilemma of Nigerians 

Dr. Okechukwu Egwu Ibiam; Anthony Itumo 

 

A RENTIER STATE AND THE PREDATORY ELITE: 

THE DILEMMA OF NIGERIANS 

 

Dr. Okechukwu Egwu Ibiam  
Department of Political Science  

Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Nigeria  

e-mail: okevibiamegwu@gmaii.com 

 

Anthony Itumo, Ph.D  

Department of Political Science  

Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki  

e-mail: tonvitumo15@gmaii.com 

 
Abstract 

The conspiracy between the hegemonic predatory elite and the rentier state among most less 

developed societies such as Nigeria has in recent times constituted a source of dilemma and 

concern to the oppressed citizens. The above scenario arises in the face of the endless rapacious 

expropriation of the wealth of these Nations by their elite among whom the Nigerian case has 

taken the front burner in various development discourse. In Nigeria the predatory elite is alleged 

to have colonized the state and the governing apparatuses for vested interests through their 

opportune access to the wealth of the land. As much as liberal scholars of modernization theory 

may wish to eulogize the sparsely identified decaying concrete Jungles of ill-conceived 

landmarks of development in the land of Nigeria, the evidence of poverty, decaying 

infrastructure, insecurity, mass unemployment and other vices that ravage the people in the midst 

of plenty exists among the citizens to buttress the contentions against the state which have 

culminated into its being called to question. This report is therefore part of the ever increasing 

efforts at an exposition of some of the horrendous conditions of life among the people. This study 

therefore sought to establish facts that Justified the vexing issues being orchestrated by the 

Nigerian state's descent to a puppet status in the hands of the predatory elite who; having 

entrapped it have continued to employ various mechanism of wealth expropriation to impoverish 

the people. Based on the paradigm of class analyses it was established that the convivial 

relationship between the predatory elite and the Nigerian state is sustained in consort with state 

bureaucrats, technocrats and political office holders through a mechanism that facilitates the 

exploitation of the masses in the interest of the elite. This process having persisted for ages in 

Nigeria and having elevated corruption to a state craft was synthesized in this study and 

established as unacceptable conditions of life to Nigerians that deserved lasting panacea. 

Accordingly, some recommendations were made the areas of ideological revolution by Nigerians 

based on a paradigm shift to egalitarianism as alternative development roadmaps for the general 

good of all Nigerians.  

 

Keywords: Rentier State, Predatory Elite, Poverty, Development, Good Governance.  

 

 

 

mailto:okevibiamegwu@gmaii.com
mailto:tonvitumo15@gmaii.com


 

 

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INTRODUCTION  

The contemporary Nigerian state has 

been adjudged by critical analysts and 

the citizens of our society as a failed 

state in terms of the development of the 

nation. As a key player in the political 

and socio-economic determination of 

the dynamics that influence the 

trajectory of development in Nigeria, 

this state has continued to create avenues 

for it to be called to question. The 

ensuring scenario which has the 

potential of causing citizens to engage in 

social disobedience and other acts that 

constitute threats to the nation's 

sovereignty arises from the state’s 

unbridled alliance with the dominant 

elite for the latter's interest. The 

relationship between the state and these 

elite has been adjudged as providing 

enabling environment for the elite's 

exploitation of the wealth of Nigerians. 

In view of this, a contradiction of this 

state's status as a neutral arbiter which 

superintends without bias; between all 

men as they relate in society is assumed 

to have occurred. 

  

..... as a territorial society 

divided into the government and 

the (governed] subjects; the 

government being a body of 

persons within this state who 

apply the legal imperatives upon 

which the state rests and 

differently from "any person" 

within the territorial society, it is 

entitled to use coercion to see 

these imperatives are obeyed 

(Laski 1989).  

 

This is the state of the people as it were 

which the Nigerian founding fathers 

envisaged while contending for power of 

self-rule with the British colonizers. 

Having been translated into a sovereign 

and independent state from 1960, this 

state as it exists today has lost its 

legitimacy among the citizens. This state 

as it exists and operates in contemporary 

Nigeria has continually skewed in its 

duties in favour of the dominant 

exploiter class whose elitist interests run 

ultra-varies to those of the masses. From 

the decaying infrastructure to the 

increasing insecurity, unemployment, 

poor health facilities as well as near total 

absence of welfare for citizens and rising 

income inequality, the endless list of 

what the state has failed to do in Nigeria 

have necessitated some critique. If the 

Nigerian state in its true and original 

form is "that regime or system of 

regulations and laws which form the 

basis for supreme authority that orders 

for all and receives orders from none', 

(Weber 1947) then Nigerians deserves to 

ask for a revisit of the meaning and 

duties of their state. This is a necessary 

agenda in view of this present status in 

which the Nigerian state has become a 

rentier state and an instrument for class 

domination. It is therefore seen as rentier 

state because of its alliance with the 

predatory elite who have subordinated it 

to their whims and caprice in defense of 

private property (Engels, 1977).  

 

A historico-materialist and dialectical 

view of the relationship between the 

Nigerian state and the citizens reveals a 



 

 

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A Rentier State and the Predatory Elite: The Dilemma of Nigerians 

Dr. Okechukwu Egwu Ibiam; Anthony Itumo 

 

contradiction of the liberal school’s 

contention that this state is "a neutral 

arbeiter (Weber 1947) in the affairs of 

men. Such a contradiction is evidenced 

when the material base of its origin and 

nature is revealed from British colonial 

experiences to the character of the 

crude-capitalist elite that dominates this 

state (Belov, 1986). The argument here 

is that since the Nigerian state is a child 

of circumstance mid-wived by the 

British capitalist from colonialism to 
contemporary disposition which remains in 

favour of the predatory elite in our 

society causes it to be called to question. 

The Nigerian state can therefore be 

rightly referred to as a tool in the hands 

of a specific few, who in this case are the 

few Nigerians with access to state 

powers and the means of socio-

economic reproduction, distribution and 

allocation of resources. This is a 

colonial legacy bequeathed the Nigerian 

people under which a few opportune 

citizens dominate and use the state to 

pursue vested interests. Having become 

conditioned as rent collection 

machinery, the Nigeria state has reneged 

in its mediatory and arbitration duties 

between the citizens. Indeed, this state 

has become an agent for the collection 

of petro dollar rents in Nigeria with 

which it feeds the ever increasing 

appetite of the rapacious elite to the 

detriment of the masses. Having labored 

and suffered for decades under this state 

to the benefit of this exploiter elitist 

class, the Nigerian masses have come 

out variously to demand for a revisit of 

the nature and functions of their state. 

The increasing antagonism by Nigerians 

towards their state as it exists has in 

recent times taken a turn for the worse 

with individuals and groups rising in 

various forms to express their feelings 

through such actions that include civil 

disorder or disobedience, repeated 

worker's labour unrest and strike as well 

as ethnic restiveness, acts of tenor and 

other forms of fifth columnist activities. 

This constitutes a source of concern that 

necessitates this paper presentation.  

 

The Elite and the State  

The elite are specific citizens who have 

access to the institutions of society with 

which they determine and control the 

affairs of that society. Mosca (1939) is 

of the view that in every society, which 

has attained the dawning of civilization; 
irrespective of their level of development; 

there is the evident existence of division 

of the citizens into two strata of the 

rulers and the ruled. Mosca's views 

which agree with those of Pareto (1848-

1923) Ortega (1883- 1955) and Mitchels 

(1876-1936) is that every society (in 

particular, the crude capitalist ones) is 

ruled by a minority that possesses the 

qualities that facilitate their ascension to 

socio-economic and political power. It is 

this position they occupy that provides 

the commanding heights for them to 

control society's institutions such as  

the state.  

 

The state on its part is seen as a creature 

of the basis and most decisive element 

of the superstructure of society. Igwe 

(2005) furthers here that such a state is 

a culmination of men's struggles in 

settled life and it is an embodiment of 



 

 

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the expression of the common interests 

of the dominant class within the system 

and the derivation ruling class within 

the government (Charlseworth ed 

(1967). In many African societies there 

is evident difficulty in the attempts at 

separating the elite and the state. It is  

always common to have the state 

existing at the be est of the ruling elite 

thus leading to the existence of a state 

of the elite which operates to satisfy 

specific interests which most often 

remains farfetched from the interest of 

the masses. Thus we see states of 

societies in Africa existing under 

definite system of either a dictatorship 

or selective democracy subject to the 

specific interests of the dominant elite.  

 

Conceptually, Lenin (1983:93-9) sees 

the renter state as that which does not 

engage in concrete activities of 

governance and provision of socio-

economic facilities that give meaning to 

the life of the citizen. It is a state that 

depends on rents and royalties accruing 

from minerals extracted in the society by 

externally controlled sources such as 

multinational corporations (MNCs). 

The rentier state is in these instances in 

a weak position in its relationship with 

the owners of the means of production, 

with respect to the determination of the 

trajectory of policies governing 

activities of their benefactor foreign 

corporations. The dilemma of this state 

lies in its lack of political and economic 

command and control over the activities 

of the rent payers, thus disposing it to 

manipulations by such externally 

oriented tenants. The implications of 

these situation in which the Nigerian 

state finds itself is that rent collection 

processes subjects it to the control of 

agents of the multinational corporation 

(MACs) for no other reason than profit 

maximization. Accruable rents to the 

state are often shortchanged, diverted or 

out rightly denied the state through 

various unwholesome practices by state 

officials in collusion with profiteers and 

the elite. Faced with this ordeal, the state 

becomes a lame state whose functions 

and responsibilities to the society are 

never effective. This being the order in 

Nigeria has extended to the most 

horrifying phase in which this weak 

spineless state is completely taken over 

and operated by agents, cronies and 

even the elite for purposes of unfettered 

rapacious expropriation of needed 

resources. 

  
A THEORETICAL UNDERPINNING  

The need for a theoretical base in 

understanding the state and the elite 

crisis in this paper is for the purpose of 

establishing the specific ideology 

guiding us. Fundamentally this paper 

takes on the theory of class analysis a 

guide based on a deliberate effort that 

had considered the efficacy of other 

contending views which can be applied 

by other interested analyst on the same 

subject.  

 

The class theory is part of the Marxist 

political philosophy that sees the "class" 

as a socio-economic and political 

category in relation to its relationship to 

the means of production, distribution 

and exchange of material goods, 



 

 

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A Rentier State and the Predatory Elite: The Dilemma of Nigerians 

Dr. Okechukwu Egwu Ibiam; Anthony Itumo 

 

whether as the owner, controller or 

beneficiary or as the exploited. Based on 

an objective identification of the 

characteristics of subjects of analyses in 

this paper, it becomes historically 

relevant for an appreciation of the 

consciousness of the elite class in its 

position in the scheme of things (Igwe, 

2005). Here the class theory becomes a 

handy guide for us to understand that 

beyond the classes primitive 

communalist mode of socio-economic 

reproduction under which socio-

economic life was basically that of 

cooperation, communalist welfare 

devoid of any form of competition, 

antagonism and wealth accumulation for 

vested interests, classes have existed 

among men. The contradiction of the 

primitive communalist mode having 

occurred to pave way for the slave and 

other stages of feudalism and capitalism, 

division of society along the strata of the 

strong and the weak, the haves and have 

nots; have weighed in to ossify class 

characterization of men. 

 

Notwithstanding these class divisions a 

few humane societies have managed to 

exist in recent times by striking some 

form of balance that causes each class to 

accommodate the other. Pursuant of a 

semblance of some form of egalitarian, 

some of such societies have had their 

states being strengthened to take on a 

relative role of the mediator between 

classes. Such mediation though not 

absolute and neutral beyond some form 

of dominant class interventions, has 

continued to reposition a few modern 

metropolitan states for a relatively 

definite persuasive role of providing for 

all classes in the society. This level of 

development is unfortunately yet to be 

envisaged by the backward societies 

such as Nigeria, what with the ever 

increasing rapacious appetite of the 

prebendalist elite remaining ever 

voracious.  

 

THE NIGERIAN DILEMMA  

The Nigerian state remains a dilemma to 

the citizens in terms of its clear 

interpretation along either a core 

capitalist or socialist economy. This 

situation creates contentions among 

analyst in their efforts at a presentation 

of this state as a midway state despite the 

much bandied about mixed economy 

status which the ruling elite concocted to 

facilitate their double standard roles 

during the cold war era. The Nigerian 

state is therefore a dilemma to the people 

as it has deviated from its duties to them 

which is that of satisfying the interests of 

a specific set of citizens.  

 

Ake (2007: 105) does not mince words 

when he argues that:  

... the states in Africa are specific 

modalities of class domination. 

Being generic phenomenon in 
capitalist and socialist formations, 

the unique feature of the socio-

economic formations in post 

colonials Africa is that their 

states, Igwe can properly talk of 

such existence at all, have very 

limited autonomy. The state in 

Africa is only a particular 

modality of class domination. In 

the social formations of Africa 



 

 

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that are supposedly capitalist, 

we find a rudimentary 

auionomization of class 

domination. In the African social 

formations that are purportedly 

socialist we find a limited 

possibility of class domination 

being mediated and autonomized 

effectively by commodity 

production and exchange. As far 

as the state and social forces are 

concerned, we can argue that 

much of postcolonial Africa 

remains essentially "enclave" 

capitalism marked by class 

domination.  

 

Much contradiction does exist between 

the liberal schools’ notions of the state 

and the reality of its roles in the affairs 

of men in Nigeria. This becomes clearer 

when we draw inferences between 

Cicero's (106-34Bc) allusion that the 

state belongs to the people because the 

people are an association of a good 

number of persons based on justice and 

partnership to source common good; and 

Akes (1996) contention that the state is 

organized in the midst of class conflict 

by the economically dominant class 

which therefore becomes also the 

politically most powerful class. In 

Nigeria, the neo-colonial state's 

contradiction of its liberalist's assumed 

neutrality in the affairs of men is made 

clearer because of its origin in the 

exploiter capitalist colonial state. As a 

product of European traders' capitalist 

exploits beyond their boarders, the 

colonial state was imposed on the 

nationalities of the areas amalgamated in 

1914 for the purpose of using it to 

superintend the expropriation processes 

among the colonized (Crawder 1968). 

The role of the colonial state being the 

subordination of all the nationalities 

through all forces necessary was 

actuated and strengthened most 

effectively through the principles of 

divide and rule (Okibe 2000). Imbued 

with its colonial master's attributes of 

class characterization for resources 

expropriation in the interest of a specific 

class at independence, the post-colonial 

Nigerian state has continued to sustain 

the same art of subterfuge among its 

people. Since the leopard cannot easily 

change its colour, we can argue that the 

post-colonial Nigerian state has since 

the 1960 flag independence jamboree; 

been stealthily entrapped into the 

intricate web of intrigues for resource 

appropriation ossified by the predatory 

elite within and outside the shores of 

Nigeria. By living up to its calling the 

state in Nigeria has grown into an 

octopusian rentier organism which is a 

development dilemma to the citizens 

under which those in control of state 

political structures depend on selective 

incentives such as patronage, cliental 

ism (god fatherism) graft, gratifications, 

percentage cuts, kickbacks, contract 

inflation under over writing and write 

offs as well as other acts that facilitate 

prebendalism etc to keep his seat of 

power (Gaddes 1994).  

 

These acts having elevated corruption 

into a state craft debilitates development 

in Nigeria as it ossifies problems such as 

lack of essential infrastructure and social 



 

 

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A Rentier State and the Predatory Elite: The Dilemma of Nigerians 

Dr. Okechukwu Egwu Ibiam; Anthony Itumo 

 

services, which in turn compounds 

poverty which all causes citizen 

resentment and agitations for change. 

The predatory elite being a group though 

not cohesively held together exists as a 

cabal in the Nigerian context with a 

common interest which is access to state 

corridors of power, from where they 

operate and exploit Nigeria's resources. 

They include but are not limited to the 

past and present personalities occupying 

commanding height in the hierarchy of 

political and socio-economic 

conditioning of Nigeria. The Nigerian 

elite in this context include personalities 

that range from the immediate post-

independence rulers to the military 

dictatorial rulers as well as the self-

appointed democrats and those whose 

costumes change from regimented 

attires to flamboyant African traditional 

agbada, caftan, suits and their errand 

boy. The list continues to lengthen to 

include the pockets of bureaucrats, 

religious zealots, traditional rulers, 

ethnocentrists, captains of industries and 

all involved and are benefiting from the 

orchestration of exploitation and 

expropriation of the wealth of the land 

called Nigeria.  

 

These are persons committed to 

perfecting the art of wealth 

expropriation for personal, family and 

class interests. They operate without 

formally coming together; as easily 

identifiable bodies, in a manner that 

causes easy crude -capitalist wealth and 

resources accumulation for vested 

interests. They are persons involved 

directly or indirectly in holding down or 

conditioning the poor for the endless 

transfusion of their blood to sustain the 

lifeline of the dominant class through the 

apparatus of the state. These are acts that 

justify calling the Nigerian state a rent 

collecting agent. As much as there are 

ranges of states which can be defined in 

terms of the way they affect 

development among its citizens, the 

Nigerian state is a peculiar one. This is a 

state that facilitates and has even 

become involved in the extraction of 

large amount of otherwise  

investable surplus from the citizen's 

wealth and provided so little in the way 

of collective good (Evans 1987).  

 

It seems reasonable to call the state that 

collaborates with the predatory elite to 

collect and misappropriate citizens' 

wealth a rentier state. This is so because 

it is a state that has its incumbents 

distributing resources to themselves, 

families, supporters and cronies without 

recourse to the demands of civility, due 

process and rule of law. This state is a 

rent collection agent because 

incumbents use their role and 

policymaking authorities to facilitate 

"rent" collection and royalties from 

multinational corporations engaged in 

resources extraction and transfer to the 

metropolis. This state is a rentier state 

because of its lack of legitimacy among 

the citizenry and sovereignty among 

decent committee of nations, occasioned 

by its vulnerability to a self-seeking elite 

who use it for wanton wealth 

accumulation. This state is so 

compromised in its relation with forces 

that control it leading some scholars to 



 

 

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hypothesize that "competition by the 

elite for entry to government for ruler 

ship is, in part, a competition for rent 

collection agency payoffs and 

settlement (Krueger 1974).  

 

The rentier state in Nigeria being one of 

the weakest and dependent third world 

societies is not a neutral arbeiter as 

western liberal scholarship such as 

Hegel may want us to belief. On the 

contrary, commentaries by neo-Marxist 

scholars hold that state policies of the 

rent collecting state are reflections of 

vested interests in society which in part 

causes a nostalgic recall of the efficacy 

of the opus magnum of Karl MaIx. on 

the biases that likel'f characterize 

exploiter state policies (Colander 1984) 

The political office holders in rentier 

states have in most cases willingly or 

otherwise been held hostage by their 

political mentors, masters or god fathers, 

because of earlier arrangement that 

programmed and propelled such 

political office holders into power.  

 

Przeworski et al (2000: 189) argue that;  

Faced with the prospects of 

losing power, those (African 

rulers) who make political 

decisions (for the state) may 

engage ill pillage rather than 

pursue development policies that 

would enhance the welfare of 

their constituencies so as to 

enhance their chances of 

surviving in power.  

 

Goldman (2007) in a study of African 

state's misrule among their citizens 

revealed that Nigeria was rated by 

transparency international in year 2002 

as second to last among nations 

characterized by official government 

acts of corruption, is an example of a 

rent collecting state that sustains 

corruption at the behest of a cabal. He 

furthered that between 1986 and 1999 

when the military junta held sway in 

their reign of terror under the various 

junta, the Nigerian people were held 

hostage by gun-toting military 

desperadoes whose primary objectives 

were that of feeding fat on the oil 

revenue flowing through the land. An 

illustration of the helplessness of the 

rentier state of Nigeria in the hands of 

predator elite was the case of late 

General Sani Abacha whose reign of 

terror between 1994 and 1998 opportune 

him to amass wealth that made him, his 

family and cronies richer than some 

nations of Africa. This was a pathetic 

case that de- generated the status of the 

state in Nigeria beyond imaginations 

under the iron vice of Late General 

Abacha who collaborated with the 

predatory elite to elevate corruption 

ineptitude, misrule, and other anti-

people developmental practices to the 

highest level.  

 

Masland and Bartholet (2002) argued 

that within the period of this specific 

regime of General Sani Abacha, poverty 

became wide spread as revealed by a 

World Bank survey which showed that 

Abacha "managed to steal $4bilion in 

less than five years as head of state. This 

wealth was amassed in collusion with 

his predatory elitist cronies through 



 

 

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Dr. Okechukwu Egwu Ibiam; Anthony Itumo 

 

fictitious contracts, taking huge bribes 

and creaming off directly from the 

national treasury using corrupt 

bureaucrats, central bank officials and 

foreign operators of the multinational oil 

corporations in Nigeria.  

 

Beyond the military dictators that turned 

the Nigerian state into a renteir agent are 

the present day's political contractors 

roaming the land pretending to be 

consolidating on nonexistent democratic 

principles and dividends. Since 1999 

when the "uniform wearing" and trigger 

happy" military elite decided to change 

garments by designing a constitution 

with so much lacuna, this rentier state 

has never been better. The Nigerian state 

under the present civilian (democratic) 

rule has continued to play its role of 

propagating state policies that facilitates 

the transformation of public utilities,  

corporations and other economically 

viable sectors into conduits for pillage, 

outright theft and other vices that negate 

the true virtues of democracy and good 

governance.  

 

Olson (1993) posits here that "the axiom 

that leaders with orientation towards 

satisfying their momentary become 

more predatory and lose interested in 

issues of larger social welfare". This 

momentary interest in itself is predicated 

on the fact of age old fear, uncertainty 

and general socio-economic insecurity 

that pervades African and indeed 

developing societies. Faced with various 

forms of insecurity arising from an ever 

decreasing marketability of Nigerian 

economy to external investors and such 

other issues as militancy, terrorism, and 

the risks associated with a mono cultural 

economic base, the political office 

holder sees the state structure as a means 

to an end. His pr-occupation with issues 

of his entry and exit from the seat of 

state power becomes defined as a 

momentary opportunity to secure a 

future for himself, family, cronies and 

benefactors. To this end, the state serves 

s access and channel to public revenue, 

which in Nigeria's case comes from the 

singular source of petro-dollar earnings 

and revenue which the elite uses the 

politician to superintend through the 

state structures and in that process 

siphon's wealth to the detriment of 

public good. Analytically it can be 

argued that prominent among the factors 

responsible for the entrapment of the 

Nigerian state into its rent  

collector status to the predatory elite is 

because the politicians are non-

ideological, non-pragmatic and non-

nationalistic in their service to 

motherland. The Nigerian rulers' 

(leader's) primacy has always been on 

self-perpetuation in power for the sole 

purpose of maximizing their material 

interests.  
 

Conclusion  

The main positron of this concluding 

part of this paper is fundamentally to 

state that the Nigerian state is not and 

has never been responsible to the 

citizens. It has never at any time stood as 

a power above all to create the synergy 

between contending interests in Nigeria 

by "taming domestic and international 

forces and harnessing them to national 



 

 

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economic interests "(Evans 2000). 

Irrespective of the intervening socio-

economic and political forces that 

formed the foundation and growth of the 

Nigerian state, its continued subjugation 

under the control of the elite that does 

not mean well for the citizenry is 

unacceptable. There is therefore the 

need for the enthronement of a people 

oriented democratic processes through 

citizen based actions that can 

revolutionize the polity towards 

ushering in objective conditions that 

cause change for the better.  

 

Among such actions include social 

actions of popular participation in 

electoral processes and elections 

through which the masses vote for 

credible candidates. Vote casting here 

should go beyond party politics (which 

has already been high jacked by the 

predatory elite) to the consideration of 

qualities of individual contestants. Votes 

cast must be made to count based on 

voters' insistence (through mass 

support) for on the spot counting and 

publication of election results. Also 

social actions such as mass protests, 

workers' strike, and civil society led 

peaceful but persistent demonstrations 

against misrule, state insensitivity to 

public good and the lot must be made a 

rallying point of the people. As much as 

the various institutions of the Nigerian 

state may have either gone moribund 

with respect to their duties or may have 

been subsumed under this ravaging 

predatory elite, the hope of the citizens 

for the better days still remains in the 

possibility of revitalizing and 

mobilizing some institutions like the 

media, educational institutions, NGOs 

and others as channels of change.  

 

To achieve such a mission, there is need 

to pursue equity, rule of law and justice 

(Roscoe 1995). The judiciary judicial 

decisions which have often been abused 

and ridiculed by the elite in Nigerian 

must rise up to the challenges if it must 

retain its dignity as the last hope of the 

common man and defender of 

democracy.  

 

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