INTERROGATING MARXIAN ALIENATION VIS-À-VIS NIGERIA'S ECONOMIC AND SOCIO-POLITICAL DEFICIT

Abstract

The philosophy of Karl Marx revolves around one fact,"matter is the basis of reality". In connection with economy and thought, Marx posits "economy is based on labour, which specifically is the human activity that puts us in touch with reality". Therefore, when a human being is alienated from labour, the necessary implications include the extinction of life, nature, self, relationship and the conception of human beings as tools, which to very good extent remain unjust and unnatural. This idea of alienation is substantiated by the ill-treatment of workers, poor payment of salaries or total non-payment, inadequate remuneration, et cetera. Taken the other way round, we see the dehumanization of workers in most societies both in the private and public sectors through the lenses of egoism occasioned by capitalism. The effect of such egoism is not far-fetched. Ideologically, money takes priority, and man serves labour instead of labour serving man. The value system of both private and government entrepreneurs gives no hope at all. Things have fallen apart and the centre of most economies cannot hold anymore. This article proposes to present the thesis that there is a need to awaken the consciousness of the proletariat and by extension, the workers (labourers) on the need for economic and political emancipation in our contemporary socio-political paradigm. This emancipation will trace the form of mental decolonization existing in forms of alienation in our various sectors.