SOCIO-ECONOMIC FORMATION OF SOCIETY: A PHILOSOPHICAL SURVEY OF THE MARXISTS’ DIALECTICAL CONCEPTION OF SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT VIS-À-VIS THE NIGERIAN STATE

Abstract

Historically, Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism have been employed by the Marxists to explain the scientific and historical processes, respectively, of societal development from the primitive stage to the advanced stage. Scientifically, societal development/transformation follows inherent natural laws which spark development from within through a dialectical process and in the same light, historically, society evolved as a result of inherent internal contradictions in a socio-economic formation (which are also dialectical), leading to a new social formation or socio-economic formation. The Nigerian nation state’s socio-economic formation situation is not the exact replica of what was obtainable in the precapitalist and full-blown bourgeoisie system of the era of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels where the key means of production were in control of the capitalists. The capitalists’ control of means of production made it possible for labour of the proletariat or the workers to be exploited. The Nigerian capitalist system is an admixture of industry owners, the petty-bourgeoisie; executives, politicians and bureaucrats. For the industrialists as owners of the means of production, their stock in trade is to exploit the workers while the petty- bourgeoisie elected or appointed into offices to preside over the affairs of the state, employ the instruments of state coercion to suppress the masses by inventing policies that inhibit their well-being. Like the traditional bourgeoisie, the Nigerian industry owners and the petty-bourgeoisie exhibit the same attitude of the capitalists of the time Marx and Engels wrote. On the whole, they have turned themselves into ‘Lords of the Manor’ as they institute obnoxious policies and corrupt practices against the well-being of the masses leading to alienation, exploitation, pain/misery, frustration, disillusionment, hardship, hunger, deprivation, injustice and hopelessness, etc. This situation like what was obtainable in the capitalist systems of the time Marx and Engels wrote, has created a class consciousness of the poor and the rich (the haves-not and the haves). It is this class consciousness that constitutes the internal contradiction which the Marxists insist culminates into the dialectical transformation of all societies; the exploited and the oppressed, etc. having attained a certain level of consciousness, would rise up even violently to enforce revolution in the society. This leads to what the Marxists call societal transformation. Employing expository highlights, the study reflects on the Marxian laws of societal development/transformation in the light of the Nigerian situation and argues in conclusion that the Nigerian situation is a potentiality of a violent revolution that would bring about dialectical change. The study is thus, analytically informed based on Marxian Dialectics.