This is the concluding part of a two-part series. Read the first part here:
http://www.infonubia.com/2013/05/the-profile-of-average-nigerian-anti.html

Happy reading....

With the radical increase in minimum wage started by Abdusalami Abubakar and continued by Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, the ability of Nigerians to consume has increased markedly. Also policies including the ‘GSM revolution’ and ‘the cement industry import substitution drive’ created significant well-paying jobs that contributed to the middle class revival. It is true that we can do better, but if you grew up in the 80's and 90's like I do, you can almost count the number of new cars on your street (if not your home town).

It is not because people don’t want to buy new cars; it is because they cannot afford it then. Before you shoot me down protesting that, how do new cars correlate with emergence of middle class, I will ask you to look at some of the most important indices tracked in developed countries. High consumer confidences and purchase of durable goods (chief among which is car) are some of the indicators of healthy economies. In a sense we are seeing the reemergence of the middle class and the good news is; it is good for anti-corruption crusades.

The reason why this is good for anti-corruption is that it is the folks in the middle class that fight corruption. While they want to paint this fight as a moral war (and truly some part of the fight is about morals and altruistic predilections), there is a more rationalistic reason; the middle class succeed more in an atmosphere that rewards fairness, justice and equal opportunity. These cardinal principles (fairness, justice, equal opportunity among others) are what corruption keeps at bay.

It is therefore in the interest of the middle class to fight corruption, not only because this is a good fight, but also because the presence of corruption stifles opportunities for this social class. This is a plight that historians in almost all advanced and emerging societies can testify to. The direction the nation takes i.e. advancement to the class of rich nations or retrogression into a vicious cycle of tyranny and gradual but circumvented growth of middle class (e.g. Argentina), depends on whether or not the middle class win this crucial battle.

Nigeria is at that crossroad. The endpoint will be determined by the outcome of this struggle between egregious corruption and the burgeon bourgeois. As it is presently, the grip corruption has on our national psych is too strong for this fledgling middle class and if care is not taken, corruption might stymied the growth of its most potent challengers. To tilt this scale in favor of the later, we need to focus on and support policies and programs that can potentially contribute to the growth of the middle class.

Any policy that ends up creating more jobs (preferable not in public sector because Nigerian public service is home to some of the most enduring corruption perpetuating institutions in the country) qualifies for this support. The reason is that more stable jobs translate to the growth of the bourgeois and all the aspirations of the bourgeoisie. For instance, the power policy of the present administration might have more impact on reducing corruption than decades of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) prosecutions.

Very few events can give more jolts to creation of jobs in Nigeria than a stable supply of electricity. If it is true that these people are the one most vociferous about anti-corruption, then it is safe to say that creating more of them is a step in the right direction for the anti-corruption crusade. While this is not the only way out of debilitating corruption, it is by far the most used path in the history of the world and it is a more plausible one.

In a sense, I am saying one way to reduce corruption in Nigeria is to invest in the emergence of a middle class. This is because these peculiar set of people are the one most shortchanged by the present arrangement. They also stand the most to gain in a less corrupt society. It is the act of converting people from the bottom rung to be part of the bourgeoisies that creates the critical mass required to challenge the hegemony of corruption. The fortunate thing about this is that almost all governments (corrupt or otherwise) want to create more middle class.

The crux of my argument is that by supporting or proposing policies that will lead to the creation of jobs and hence enable upward mobility for sizable chunk of the population, we might be doing more to fight corruption than just saying “STOP CORRUPTION”.

Share your thoughts....

http://www.infonubia.com/2013/05/the-profile-of-average-nigerian-anti_25.html