Professor Andrew Efemini
The immortal Claude Ake applied the concept of ‘bourgeois’ and ‘proletariat’ to countries while trying to explain the global political economy. These concepts are key in understanding capitalist society within Marxist literature.
A capitalist society is one in which the major means of production is in the hands or the control of private individuals as against the state. The idea of ‘major’ means that not all the means of production need to be in the hands of individuals. It is control by either private or state that is the issue.
The private individuals who control means of production are the bourgeois class and those who work and depend on wages are the proletariat. On the international stage, there are countries that control the means of production and there are others who depend on those who control the means of production.
The greatest means of production today is SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY. Now decide whether Nigeria is Bourgeois or Proletariat country? You know the fate of the bourgeois and proletariat classes in Capitalist society. Which group is the slave owners class and who are the slaves.
There are implications of this analysis for local and foreign politics in Nigeria.
Andrew Efemini is a Professor of Philosophy of Development, University of Port Harcourt.
