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Transactional politics: the manifestations of the challenges of ‘infrastructure of the stomach’ and ‘infrastructure for the stomach’ in Nigeria

ABSTRACT In Nigeria, the politics of poverty and the poverty of politics seem to have coalesced to produce a phenomenon known as ‘infrastructure of the stomach’ in the polity. Infrastructure of the stomach is a politically induced lexicon that gives a diametrically opposed verdict of representation and empowerment. ‘Stomach infrastructure’ is a reality projected by the Nigerian politicians on the vulnerable electorate who for poverty are encouraged to mortgage their fundamental right of freedom to choose who governs them in exchange for immediate gratification in monetary, food, or other material terms. The literal import of the transactional terminology of ‘stomach infrastructure’ is the moving of the meaning of infrastructure out of the context of where it is normally found and linking it with the stomach instead. The contradiction generated by the contending forces of ‘infrastructure of the stomach’ and ‘infrastructure for the stomach’ is seemingly based on a play on words and plurality of ideologies that takes the meaning of infrastructure out of the context of where it is normally found, linking it instead with the stomach. But the source of its impact is not merely and only linguistic; more properly, it is socio-economic. This binary thinking and nuance dominate, dictate and energise the structure of the Nigeria electoral process; it is either a support for stomach infrastructure which invariably can stand for vote-buying or support for infrastructure of the stomach that may translate to the overall development of the entire social structure and system.