Abuja:
sometimes after work hours when passing by certain junctions i see a

flood of people.
They're waitng for transportation to take them home.
home to where?
interesting question.
to the slums.
needless to say - these sets of people who make up the main labour

force of
the city and keep the bulk of the cities industrial machinery

functioning
live in the hinther parts of this artificial metropolis.
Question then is - who lives in the decent parts!
typically the rich! or near rich.
infact, because of the high cost of accomodation in the city,
any thing that looks decent, i dont mean opulent, just decent (read:

not too filthy environent, no paints peeling off the wall stuff. blase

structures )
is rented at exorbitant rates.
With the cost of accomodation out of the sight of the poor man's

binoculars
they've have to go to where it can be affordable.
There's an exception though, those who live in government monitized

buildings.
Now, these sets of people, are the necessary accessories of any

capitalist system.
no doubt.
labour is needed in the conversion process - of resources to products

to revenue.
But why nigerian capitalism to blame for the poverty?
first, these sets of workers give their life for the enterprise they

serve.
what do i mean, they wake at 5am, or 4am to prepare to beat the

pereniall traffic jam,
the work away at their place of employment spending all their prime

time,
then - this is how the poverty trap is created:
they receive PITTANCE WAGES -
taking home pittance wages - they're faced with HIGH AND ESCALATING

COSTS OF LIVING-
oops. SOME BILLS can be avoided , dodged, substituted, postponed but

others cant.
welcome the set of needs called NECESSITIES.
here in the capital city the costs of necessities keeps climbing

higher and higher
a trap and vicious cycle results.
To pay for life's cost they need money.
to get money they go to work,
The work pays them pittance with little increment,
there is barely anything left after living costs has taken its toll.
All workers prime time is used up to service the employer so time for

job hunting is nil,
time for self improvement is also nil,
time flies by.
Rich gets richer cuz they can set prices for the products they sell.
A hotelier can review room rates, and so on.
worker incurs more needs like having children, more school fees etc.
With these trends in place - poverty is inevitable.
in short - most so called rich people who run local or regional

businesses
are doing nothing but hiring slave labour.
And sorry, after a particular age job mobility is impossble so the so

called
worker become tied to the employer l ike a willing slave . the

pittance pay
becomes life support capsules.
Capitalist on the other hand are under pressure and greedy influences

to
pay as little as possible . why, because worker remunerations

constitutes a
cost. the less the better, besides he/she still wants to retain her

position on
some spying index. that index could be forbes or fortune-that's what

the capitalist
mainly lives for.
Exceptions -
there really no exceptions - except those who'll receive bashings if

they underpay.
or those trying to have a more than regional presence. Think banks.
and what proportion of the nations labour pool do the better paying

establishments
absorb? I guess more like 0.0001%.
i mean less than 1%.
what percentage does Government employ? maybe 20% of the labour pool

and government is
a terribly poor payer.
As a matter of fact,the cycle of poverty is such that, it dooms a

particular set of people
perenially to remain poor - because of the haunting needs/ pittance

income dilemma.
Say a worker wants to take the ican exam and needs N1m naira for

training.
he earns N100k/month working as a security gaurd in a hotel.
in 2 years he can bag his educational trophies and move on.
easy. he'll ditch his employer.
but say he earns N30k - which is what the most of these places pay

even less -
that educational dream is gone! in fact he wont even have such

aspirations with
such poor pay.
if cant find better paying job - he's doomed to a cycle of poverty.
like i said they're exceptions but within context the exceptions

better payers
are ultra nitpickers with exhorbitant requirements.
The cropping needs:
children education - education of any decent quality runs into

millions of naira
those of mediocre value easily swallow typical take home income.
note also - the rich own the factors of living!!
so while paying the masses with one hand,they collect double with the

other hand.
perpetuating the poverty cycle.
example:
that school that charges N500k for tuition /yr may pay the security

man (N30k )
>> housing:
if one doesnt want the child to live in a slum he'll need to

shell out(
some 6 - 7 figure amounts)

the list goes on.

Now,in the nigerian context, this is really obtuse - infact the owners

of the factors of living charge such unconscionable prices for their

goods - while paying such
poor salaries that the ration of take home pay to living cost (i mean

barely decent living cost)
is highly negative.

e.g
say the N30k security gaurd salary = 360K take home a year,
is placed against barely decent cost of living of say N3M year.
which means the security gaurd will need to work for 10 years
at the current rate to enjoy some things.
how many 10 year bundles does a typical young worker have?
very few,like 2,3,4.
on the other hand - the cost of living versus salary in western

nations
isnt so high.
another way to look at it.
most of the regular cars sold here in nigeria go for $10K+ to $50K in

the u.s
in that country, a security man like i mentioned can earn $15 - 25k

/year.
so in a year or two his total take home is equal to a new car!

to earn such equivalent salary in nigeria, the average security man

would need
to earn a 6 digit figure! not likely ever. no nigerian capitalist will

allow it
even if he the capitalist earns trillions of dollars a year.
with the situations so in western nations, a security man there can

enjoy the
basic decent necessities of life without needing to bag a degree!
so many of them dont send school!?
but over here to escape the poverty trap people need to earn more

(going via the job route)
and more pay is usually only awarded to the elites in the educational

labour force.

The situation wont change except a serious crack down is made against

slave labour and pittance wages dished out by the rich and their slave

yard factories.