BEHIND and BEYOND: A maladjusted middle class

It is virtually impossible in modern society for transformational change to take place without the full engagement and involvement of the middle class. This is because members of this class are much easier to mobilize around specific change issues. By virtue of their standard of living they tend to feel much more threatened by social, economic and political crises than the poor majority.

They can therefore be expected to have a stronger vested interest in making their society work than the lower or underclass whose very long-standing situation make it difficult for them to organize socially in order to defend their interests.

A widely held but mistaken view about the middle class in Nigeria is that it has collapsed or shrunk significantly as a result of the near-permanent state of economic crisis the country has been in since the early 1980s. We are all now supposed to be either very rich or very poor. But just as the rich and poor are always with us, so are members of the middle class.

There remains a large enough segment of the Nigerian population characterized by above-average educational attainment and literacy levels, modern sector occupation ad consumption patterns related to housing, diet and household gadgets, and dressing that is distinct from the ruling class and the lower classes. Its members generally have the potential to either move up into the ruling class by seeking to own some of society's means of production, or fall down into the working or destitute class as a result of sustained unemployment or other major crisis of self-reproduction.

It is, of course, true that up to the early 1980s, middle class membership was defined by such indices as ownership of brand new cars, residence in modern apartments, single-job employment, and highly westernized consumption habits.

What the economic crisis has done is to force middle-class Nigerians to change aspects of their lifestyles, including greater resort to ownership and use of second-hand cars, moonlighting to increase income sources, and consumption of local food items as a way of coping with or moderating its negative impact.

Those who could not successfully adjust their ways in the light of the extended economic crisis fell into the lower classes, while some in fact profited from the crisis and moved up the social hierarchy. On the other hand, some members of the lower classes through dint of hard work and acquisition of new skills also found their way into the middle class. So, on balance, the middle class never really shrank significantly. It merely changed in composition and some of the aspects of its lifestyle.

But if the middle class never really declined in size or collapsed as is often wrongly assumed, why has it nor been much more involved in organized efforts to turn Nigeria in the right direction?

Why are most of its members mainly to be found complaining and grumbling rather than demanding more from members of the ruling class to make the state increase the supply of public goods so as to meet the basic needs of generality of Nigerians?

The answer is largely to be found in the psychological harm that prolonged deprivation causes especially when it results in reducing the capacity for critical thinking and envisioning of alternative scenarios. Nigeria's middle class has been and remains too short-term oriented. It is too preoccupied with trying to maintain and protect its constantly threatened quality of life.

Too many of its members are bogged down with devising and pursuing private or individual solutions to macro and collective problems. The resultant strong sense of insecurity about its future well-being is therefore undermining its capacity to think trough what it needs to do to address the root causes of the situation. It is a class that seems to be unable to see that it is in its medium-to-long term interest to begin to collectively work for the building up of sustained pressure on the ruling class for the enthronement of good governance.

Ultimately, until certain segments of the middle class, especially leaders of the labour movement, civil society networks, and the intelligentsia (including public interest journalists) come together to form a vanguard for mobilising the middle class for change, it will never fulfil its historical role as a force for social transformation. This vanguard must also link up with the progressive and patriotic members of the ruling class if its change efforts are to be sufficiently resourced and sustained for the successful galvanizing of the good and silent majority.