There is perhaps no more degrading occupation in modern Nigeria than becoming a political servant disguised as an “otimkpu.” Across the country, but especially in places where political godfatherism has become a culture of mass psychological enslavement, thousands of young people now live as glorified errand boys to politicians who neither respect their humanity nor care about their future. They call it loyalty. It is not loyalty. It is organized humiliation. It is the conversion of educated youths into disposable political tools whose only value lies in how loudly they can worship a rich man intoxicated by stolen power and primitive wealth.
The average Nigerian politician does not recruit followers because he admires intelligence, competence, or independent thinking. No. He recruits obedience. He wants boys who will carry his phones, open his car doors, trail his convoy under the rain, insult his opponents online, and clap like moroons whenever he speaks nonsense in public. The relationship is not professional; it is feudal. The politician behaves like a plantation owner while the so-called aide behaves like bonded labourer. Once you begin to follow these men from morning till midnight, abandoning your own dreams and dignity, you gradually stop being a citizen and become property.
What makes this tragedy even more painful is that many of these young people are graduates. You will find somebody who studied medicine, engineering, economics, or law reduced to a social media attack dog earning less than a roadside popcorn seller. A young man who should be building a career spends his entire existence composing propaganda posts, defending incompetence on Facebook, attacking critics on WhatsApp, and screaming “capacity leader” for politicians he privately knows are intellectually empty and morally bankrupt. Nigeria has created a brutal economy where hunger now recruits slaves more effectively than chains ever did.
Most Nigerian politicians do not enter politics to serve anybody. That sentimental fiction should be buried permanently. For many of them, politics is simply legalized access to public money. Their ambition is not governance; it is acquisition. They contest elections with the mentality of men preparing for a heist. Once they gain office, the transformation becomes immediate and obscene. The man who once pretended to be humble suddenly acquires bulletproof SUVs, builds mansions that look like luxury hotels, travels abroad for medical checkups, and sends his children to elite schools in London, Canada, and Dubai while the hungry fools who campaigned for him cannot pay rent.
The most disgusting part of this culture is the psychological degradation. These politicians intentionally destroy the self-worth of those around them because domination excites them. Their followers are not allowed to disagree. The moment your opinion differs from that of the “Oga,” you are insulted publicly and reminded that you are feeding from his or her crumbs. You are expected to laugh when he laughs, shout when he shouts, attack who he attacks, and worship him like a deity. Many of these so-called aides have lost the ability to think independently because years of political servitude have turned them into intellectual prisoners.
Attend political events in Nigeria and observe the disturbing theater of slavery masquerading as loyalty. Young men sprint beside convoys like palace servants chasing emperors. Others nearly injure themselves struggling to carry briefcases or clear roads for men who stole public funds. At functions, they chant praises with religious fanaticism, hailing deeply mediocre politicians as “visionaries” and “transformational leaders” even when everybody knows the man cannot survive one hour of unscripted intellectual conversation. It is a frightening collapse of dignity. In civilized societies, public officials are questioned. In Nigeria, they are worshipped by hungry youths desperate for crumbs.
In states like Imo, this sickness has become almost institutionalized. Too many young people now believe survival depends on attaching themselves to a politician instead of building skills, businesses, or careers. Once they secure access to a political officeholder, their entire existence changes. Their social media pages become propaganda machines. Their phones become weapons for online insults. Their lives revolve around defending one politician against another politician, as though the battle between thieves is a sacred ideological war. Meanwhile, their own lives remain stagnant, miserable, and economically empty.
The irony is always brutal. The politician never truly considers these boys and girls part of his real family. They are temporary tools useful only during elections and political warfare. Once power is secured, the real beneficiaries emerge from abroad and family compounds. Cousins return from overseas. Children are handed contracts. Wives become influential. Brothers control appointments. In-laws suddenly appear everywhere. But the loyal young fool who spent years insulting opponents online and sleeping on campaign office floors becomes an inconvenience. He is discarded like trash the moment his usefulness expires.
That is why most political followers end up bitter, broke, and forgotten. They sacrifice their youth serving men who can replace them within twenty-four hours. They lose valuable years they should have spent building careers, learning trades, or creating businesses. Some cannot even function independently anymore because political dependency has destroyed their initiative. They move from one politician to another like wandering refugees searching for the next master to feed them. Poverty becomes permanent because they invested their lives in serving power instead of developing themselves.
A young man selling popcorn under the sun possesses more dignity than a graduate kneeling emotionally before politicians for survival. The popcorn seller may be poor, but at least he owns his labor, controls his freedom, and preserves his self-respect. But the political errand boy lives like a servant in permanent fear of displeasing his master. Nigeria will continue to decay for as long as its youths mistake slavery for opportunity and worship politicians instead of holding them accountable. No politician is a god. No public officeholder deserves human worship. And any system that reduces educated young people to praise-singing houseboys for corrupt elites is not politics. It is organized human degradation.
