Wealth, Power, and Pretending: A Marxist Reflection on Chief Daddy

When I first watched Chief Daddy, I saw it as a funny and colorful Nollywood film filled with chaos and family drama. The characters were loud, stylish, and full of personality, and at first it felt like a simple comedy. But after I gave it more thought, I realized that this movie says a lot about class, money, and power in Nigerian society. Looking at the story through a Marxist lens helped me see the deeper message behind the laughs. Marxist theory focuses on the struggles between different social groups, especially the rich and the poor, and how power is often tied to wealth and ownership.

Right from the beginning, the presence of wealth is everywhere. The movie opens with large homes, flashy cars, and rich people living in luxury. Chief Daddy himself is clearly a man of great influence, and everyone around him depends on him financially. When he suddenly dies, everything falls apart. People begin to panic, not because they are sad about losing him, but because they are unsure about what will happen to the wealth he controlled. This reaction made me think about how people in Nigerian society often view money as the center of life. It is not just a tool for survival but a measure of status and self-worth. Marxist theory helps us understand this by pointing out how money controls people and relationships, especially when one person holds all the power. Marx talks about the ruling class owning the means of production, while the rest of the people, the working class, have to sell their labor to survive. In Chief Daddy, we barely see anyone working. Everyone is just waiting for their inheritance. It is as if wealth appears from nowhere, and that wealth is what gives people power, not their efforts or achievements. This hides the reality that labor creates wealth. We never see Chief Daddy’s businesses or the people who run them. Instead, we only see the results of his riches. His family and associates expect to be taken care of, but no one questions how the money was made or whether it was earned fairly. This makes the audience forget about the workers and the system that supports the rich.

The film also shows how class shapes identity and relationships. Even within the family, people treat each other differently based on status. Some characters, especially those who are more educated or from the legal wife’s side of the family, talk down to others. There is a clear feeling of superiority in how they speak and behave. It shows how even among the rich, people use class to separate themselves from others. This reflects how Nigerian society often defines a person's value by how rich they are, what they wear, or how they speak. This kind of thinking keeps class divisions alive and stops people from coming together across social lines.What struck me most is how invisible the workers are in this story. Marxist theory reminds us to always ask, who is doing the work and who is getting the reward? In Chief Daddy, there are housekeepers, drivers, assistants, and cooks, but they are rarely given names or voices. They are mostly background characters, and sometimes even used as comic relief. The focus is completely on the rich family members and their greed. This silence around the workers shows how the film treats them as unimportant. It also reflects how many people in real life ignore the people who clean their homes, cook their food, or take care of their errands. This kind of invisibility allows inequality to continue without being noticed.

Inheritance is another major theme in the movie, and it is where the real conflict begins. As soon as the will is announced, people begin to argue, plot, and try to manipulate the situation to their benefit. It becomes clear that what truly matters to many of them is the money, not the memory or legacy of Chief Daddy himself. This reminded me of how the wealthy in real life keep their status through inheritance. Marxist thinkers would say this is how class is reproduced. Wealth stays in the same families, and opportunities are passed down to those who already have them. This keeps the poor from moving up and protects the comfort of the rich. In the movie, nobody questions whether it is fair that only a few people get access to wealth. They only fight about who those few should be. Something else that stood out to me was how the film presents being rich as something to admire. Even though it shows the problems that come with money, it still makes the wealthy lifestyle look desirable. The clothes are fashionable, the homes are beautiful, and even the arguments are made to feel glamorous. It is like the film is saying yes, rich people have problems, but at least they are interesting problems. This can be dangerous, because it sends a message that being rich is always better, even if it comes with drama. It tells viewers that the goal in life is to be rich, not necessarily to be kind, fair, or hardworking.

By the end of the film, nothing really changes. The family learns some lessons about sharing and love, but the basic structure stays the same. The money is still there, and the characters who were rich before are still rich. Nobody questions how Chief Daddy made his money or whether it was fair. The characters just go back to living their lives, now with a little more understanding, but still in the same system. From a Marxist point of view, this shows how the film does not challenge inequality. Instead, it accepts it as normal. The story does not imagine a world where power is shared or where everyone has equal access to wealth. It just focuses on managing conflict within the elite class. After watching Chief Daddy through this lens, I realized how much it reflects the real values of Nigerian society. People often respect others just because they have money, not because they are kind, honest, or hardworking. The film mirrors this attitude by focusing on wealth, inheritance, and status instead of justice, equality, or the dignity of labor. It also makes me think about how often we laugh at the problems of the rich without asking why those problems exist in the first place. If more films explored the lives of workers and questioned the system itself, maybe we would start to see things differently.

In conclusion, Chief Daddy is more than just a comedy about family chaos. It is also a story about class, wealth, and who holds power in society. Through a Marxist lens, we can see how the film highlights the way wealth shapes relationships, divides people, and continues across generations through inheritance. It shows how workers are made invisible and how people are judged based on how much they have instead of who they are. While the film entertains, it also leaves important questions unanswered. That is why I think watching it critically can teach us more about our society than we expect.