Middle Class Critical to Nation-Building

The involvement of the middle class in the drafting, implementation and monitoring of government policies has been described as the pathway to building a virile nation. Experts at a workshop organised by the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) on 4th June, 2011 at its seminar room submitted that the emergence of the middle class in Nigeria’s democratic process in recent times is a good omen, and that if the gesture continues an egalitarian and prosperous nation is in the offing.

The Executive Director of the Institute, Professor Eric Eboh, in a welcome address disclosed that the workshop was organised to galvanise experts’ opinion on the position of middle class in nation building in the next fifteen years. Professor Eboh noted that the workshop was part of the Institute’s efforts of creating forum for experts and stakeholders to analyse topical issues that would form input into public policy. He added that AIAE is committed to creating opportunities for positive contributions to overall economic development in Nigeria and African countries at large. He stressed that, “AIAE is interested in knowing how the behaviour of middle class could be used to improve on different policies and programmes of the government. The Institute will weave the ideas together to form synthesis and opinion about where the middle class belong in the next few years. It is an intellectual framework between social and economic studies.”

In their various contributions, the select stakeholders drawn from several fields of profession including; economics, public relations, media, academics, medicine, bankers, bureaucrats as well as businessmen and women averred that the emergence of the middle class in the scheme of things in Nigeria had shown that the group was ready to play a noble role in nation building.   Though the participants at the workshop concurred that definition of middle class is ambiguous, the group (middle class) could be seen as a class of people in the ‘middle of societal hierarchy’.

According to the participants, middle class has re-emerged in Nigeria and the major factors that characterised the inclusion of anybody in the class are income, education, social networking and professional inclination, lifestyle, expenditure and consumption patterns and employment. The experts hinted that the middle class which constitutes the Civil Societies (CSOs), the Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and other voluntary organisations remain the building block all over the world and therefore called on the government to take advantage of their contributions in delivering dividends of democracy to the citizenry.

The stakeholders gave the middle class a pat on the back, saying its roles in Nigeria’s democratic process has culminated in free, fair and credible elections. They unanimously challenged the Federal Government to reciprocate this gesture by maintaining relative peace in the Niger Delta, implement the power blue print, implement the local content policies in different sectors, enhance establishment of schools to create environment for skill development and improve technology development in the country. They called on those taking leadership positions in government to sustain the current tempo in Nigeria, which they believe will take the country to Eldorado.

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