Nigeria is not collapsing in one loud moment. It is being eaten slowly. The signs are everywhere. Roads that lead nowhere. Schools that teach little. Hospitals where hope enters and despair leaves. What looks like failure is in fact consumption. Power has become a feast. And the nation has become the meal.
At the center of this quiet devouring is a political culture that rewards appetite more than service. Elections come like market days. Promises are displayed like goods. Voters walk through, hungry, hopeful, tired. Then the buying begins. Not of ideas, but of loyalty. Not of vision, but of survival. By the time the ballots are counted, the feast has already started behind closed doors.
The tragedy is not that leaders suddenly become corrupt. It is that the system trains them to consume or be consumed. A young politician enters with fire in his bones and dreams in his chest. But the table he meets is already set. Around it sit men and women who have mastered the art of taking without giving. To survive, he must learn their language. To rise, he must sharpen his appetite. And so, one more hopeful voice becomes another silent eater.
Meanwhile, the people adapt in ways that deepen the cycle. Poverty teaches patience, but it also teaches compromise. When the stomach is empty, tomorrow becomes less important than today. A bag of rice today can silence questions about stolen billions tomorrow. This is how a nation is eaten without resistance. Not because the people do not see, but because hunger speaks louder than outrage.
Yet beneath the surface, something restless is growing. Across towns and cities, in quiet conversations and loud frustrations, Nigerians are beginning to name the problem for what it is. Not just bad leadership, but a culture of consumption. Not just failed policies, but a broken understanding of power itself. Power was meant to build, to protect, to guide. Instead, it has learned to feed.
The future of Nigeria will depend on whether this table can be overturned. Whether a new generation can refuse the feast and choose service instead. Whether citizens can trade short term relief for long term change. Nations do not die in a day. They are eaten over time. But they can also be rebuilt, piece by piece, by those who decide that enough has been taken, and something must finally be given back.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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