Nigerian State and the Palliative System: A Deliberate Weaponization of Poverty against the Masses

While there are significant volumes of studies on state and palliative system, little or no intellectual attention has focused on how palliative system has weaponized poverty among the masses in Nigeria. This paper explores how the Nigerian state deliberately weaponize poverty against its citizens and how the palliative system gives an idea of the weaponization of poverty that is endemic in Nigeria. It draws on the attention on how the widespread of poverty in Nigeria is webbed around a culture that situates people and their off-springs in a particular social stratum and engenders certain norms and practices that ensure that they not only remain there but accept their situation as normal. Like gun-wielding terrorists, the political class in Nigeria has consistently exploited the widespread poverty in the country to perpetuate themselves in power through palliative and crumbs, while the masses, who truly have the electoral power, have been made to groan under heavy suppression and oppression. Although, the danger or harm of the palliative system has reduced Nigerian masses to animals where Nigerian citizens are seen scooping rice with sand on bare floor, this is happening when we are not at war, the study found that the term "palliative" has taken on a deeper, more cynical meaning, becoming emblematic of the government's carrot and stick approach to managing the masses. Palliatives, once intended as temporary relief measures during times of crisis, have evolved into a tool of governance, a method of pacifying the population while maintaining control. Keywords: Poverty, Palliative, Weapon, Nigerian State, Political Class