rusher14:



What aspect of the economy is unenabling and what was enabling in the past?

The insecurity rocking the country and resulting in people abandoning their means of livelihood is not an enabling aspect right?
The uninterrupted darkness we are witnessing in Nigeria even after the appointment of our "Super "Fashola is not an unenabling factor right?
It is very funny how all you Zombies either deny Nigeria's problems or push it on to Nigerians nowadays. You people are sick actually.

There is really no such tin

It's live a life of splendour or you are wallowing in poverty

Nigeria is not an easy country to quantify in such terms. For instance, I watched a Youtube Video featuring this African American guy whose market angle is on African Americans retruning to Africa. He says he likes Nigeria but he does not really. In any case, one of his trips to Africa was to Ivory Coast where he travelled to a home he considered example of the kind of lifestyle African Americans could expect if only they but travelled to Africa. Well, it surprised me (meaning I wasn’t impressed, sorry). In Nigeria, a cousin of mine who regularly complains of poverty, lives in a 18-bedroom house, all rooms En-suite. All floors of the house Italian marble. Home is well-furnished in combination of local carved furniture and western ones. They have TV and computers, American style fridge and while they don’t eat yoghurts and hams they eat beans, yams plantains, gari, pounded yams, fist, fruits indomi, bread, ovaltin, biscuits, soups, Adidi, portage, crabs and the rest of the stuff Nigerians generally eat now and then or often. He is unemployed and earns by renting, running a small church and Keke. We have offered to sponsor him to come abroad but he refuses. In the area he lives in Warri Delta, he couldn’t in truth be considered upper class or even middle class nor could he be considered poor. He does not own a car but majority of his mates own cars. These people couldn’t be classified upper class. Nigeria is not an easy place to quantify. With Nigeria, it is best to employ the term Relative.

The middle class are on their way to canada

Was the African American that search for uhuru guy?

Litmus:
Nigeria is not an easy country to quantify in such terms. For instance, I watched a Youtube Video featuring this African American guy whose market angle is on African Americans retruning to Africa. He says he likes Nigeria but he does not really. In any case, one of his trips to Africa was to Ivory Coast where he travelled to a home he considered example of the kind of lifestyle African Americans could expect if only they but travelled to Africa. Well, it surprised me (meaning I wasn’t impressed, sorry). In Nigeria, a cousin of mine who regularly complains of poverty, lives in a 18-bedroom house, all rooms En-suite. All floors of the house Italian marble. Home is well-furnished in combination of local carved furniture and western ones. They have TV and computers, American style fridge and while they don’t eat yoghurts and hams they eat beans, yams plantains, gari, pounded yams, fist, fruits indomi, bread, ovaltin, biscuits, soups, Adidi, portage, crabs and the rest of the stuff Nigerians generally eat now and then or often. He is unemployed and earns by renting, running a small church and Keke. We have offered to sponsor him to come abroad but he refuses. In the area he lives in Warri Delta, he couldn’t in truth be considered upper class or even middle class nor could he be considered poor. He does not own a car but majority of his mates own cars. These people couldn’t be classified upper class. Nigeria is not an easy place to quantify. With Nigeria, it is best to employ the term Relative.

okeniti:
Was the African American that search for uhuru guy?

Yeah, thats him.

RTSC:

And buhari did what in 1984?

Boost the middle class?

Exactly!

Maduawuchukwu:


The insecurity rocking the country and resulting in people abandoning their means of livelihood is not an enabling aspect right?
The uninterrupted darkness we are witnessing in Nigeria even after the appointment of our "Super "Fashola is not an unenabling factor right?
It is very funny how all you Zombies either deny Nigeria's problems or push it on to Nigerians nowadays. You people are sick actually.

Insecurity in the form of kidnapping is an example of the inherent corruption of the average Nigerian.

Kidnapping is a societal problem which cannot easily be eradicated regardless of how you wish to spin it.

Power supply has improved in Nigeria, again no matter how you wish to spin it, this is the case.

Slimpotter:


When the majority of the population find it difficult to cover the basic necessities of life, then you know you have a dwindling middle class.

The upper class is known by their ability to enjoy luxuries, and comparing those with the ability to pay for luxuries and those who couldn't

.

Sooo on point....defining the classes. No doubt... the middle class been merging with the lower class....and even faster when the currency began to slide. Then the buying power becomes weaker since salaries aren't adjusted to counter inflation. The middle. lass now find it difficult to afford the basic needs...so just like that...they're out of middle class bracket.

I can't talk for other places in Nigeria, but from what i've seen in Lagos I would say yes. Anybody who has at least one source of income (let's say NGN150,000 net monthly the minimum) that allows them to save/invest, keep roof over head, pay for living costs (and dependencies to an extent) and enjoyment through the twelve months of the year to me is middle class in my own opinion.

Teewhy2:
Guys, Happy workers day.
I would like us to make this as interactive as it can, Lets ask ourselves this question
Is there Middle class in Nigeria again?
for some of us that who like to know what the middle class is, this is a social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families.
So do we still have this group in Nigeria, Many of us know that the rate of unemployment is on the rise in the country and out of the ones that are employed statistics shows that 80% are under employed, that is to say only 20% of this people are gainfully employed.
In my own opinion ( you can share yours in the comment section) I want to believe that 5% are in the rich class maybe around 10% in the Middle class and the remaining 85% are poor, forget all these cars you see people driving around, how many of them can fill up the their gas to the brim and not feel it in their pocket, a lot of people living in the island before has started moving to mainland{ Note not to GRA on mainland} to rent apartment and the ones not moving to the mainland are moving to the outskirt towards Epe. the people on the mainland are moving to other neighbouring state and claiming second Lagos, or Lagos extension.

I saw in a newspaper article the below and am shocked.



This is to say some other west african countries are living a more quality life than most nigerians, I want to believe in most part of the world where people where being are important the middle class are like 80% of the population.
so the question is what is the government doing to bring people out of poverty in the country.

APC N10,000 TraderMoni is meant to tackle poverty.

Since I was born, I have not seen such a useless government. They keep talking about corruption as if anti corruption creates jobs, pay salaries and when you talk about poverty, they mention TraderMoni.

These people no get brain o.

Chukwurah003:


Exactly!

You must be an alien.

Go and ask your father how Nigeria was under buhari.

Elldeb:
capital No....and Buhari is not responsible for that because middle class disappeared long before democracy came in1999.
babagida is culpable in its disappearance.

No brother Obasanjo reforms in the Banking and Telecoms sector of 1999 to 2003 brought back the middle class. Even the stock market boom of years earlier than 2008 grew the middle class. Ring tone millionaires were members of the middle class.

I was also a member of the middle class for long under PDP where you fuel your car tank to the brim and use it till it finishes then you refuel it to full again.

You buy drinks, soaps, detergents, milk in cartons. You have every little thing in its abundance yet you are a mere salary earner who does not engage in sharp practices or corruption.

aaronson:
Wow, There's a lot of ignorance on this thread, So this my people don't even understand class struggle, Ok let me break it down.

There are always 3 classes in a social strata, The upper, middle and lower.

*There upper class are the politicians who don't work but enjoy political extortion and loot via thier political office, to them looting is like a perk of office.

*The Middle class are the business owners of any society. Whether you Dangote or Emeka and sons ltd and you happen to employ somebody, that automatically pushes you to the Middle class status.

* The Lower class are people like us always looking for jobs, from the highest earning staff in NNPC, Banks etc to the lowest earning staff at your various company are all in the same category of lower class because the day they SACK you. It's back to square one for you or nothing. Karl Marx calls these set of people, the proleterait


This is what Upper, middle and lower class means according to Karl Marx. Now the American society is more of middle class society because they are many business owners than Nigeria. Here in Nigeria(The best country in the whole world anticlockwise), There are more people working regularly job than starting thier own business hence putting us in a lower class society strata.

May our Brain help us not God because am Atheist so i believe in thinking than skydaddy.

I had lost hope of reading something sensible here but thanks for this, we haven't totally lost it, we've still got some sensible people

aaronson:
Wow, There's a lot of ignorance on this thread, So this my people don't even understand class struggle, Ok let me break it down.

There are always 3 classes in a social strata, The upper, middle and lower.

*There upper class are the politicians who don't work but enjoy political extortion and loot via thier political office, to them looting is like a perk of office.

*The Middle class are the business owners of any society. Whether you Dangote or Emeka and sons ltd and you happen to employ somebody, that automatically pushes you to the Middle class status.

* The Lower class are people like us always looking for jobs, from the highest earning staff in NNPC, Banks etc to the lowest earning staff at your various company are all in the same category of lower class because the day they SACK you. It's back to square one for you or nothing. Karl Marx calls these set of people, the proleterait


This is what Upper, middle and lower class means according to Karl Marx. Now the American society is more of middle class society because they are many business owners than Nigeria. Here in Nigeria(The best country in the whole world anticlockwise), There are more people working regularly job than starting thier own business hence putting us in a lower class society strata.

May our Brain help us not God because am Atheist so i believe in thinking than skydaddy.

From your definition only politicians are upper class. You are very wrong.

So Buhary is upper class while Dangote, Otedola and Arthur Eze are middle class.

Your definition is faulty. Seriously...

They still exist.

okeniti:
I can't talk for other places in Nigeria, but from what i've seen in Lagos I would say yes. Anybody who has at least one source of income (let's say NGN150,000 net monthly the minimum) that allows them to save/invest, keep roof over head, pay for living costs (and dependencies to an extent) and enjoyment through the twelve months of the year to me is middle class in my own opinion.

You said N150,000.

Assuming you want to save and buy a car, after two years your savings cannot buy you a fairly used/direct Belgium car assuming a save rate of N50k monthly. The comfortable middle class don't consider how much they spend on an item, rather quality and comfort top their considerations before cost.

In Lagos, with its long queues in traffic, can N20,000 comfortably fuel your Rx330 to work, church and club for one month ? No Nada. So what is N150k ? N1.8m a Year.

You don't know what is middle class.

Middle class no longer exist watin man nor go hear for NL.

*different environment but I guess this link will help, so read up

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/sociology/social-and-global-stratification/types-of-social-classes-of-people

cooltola:
It is quite unfortunate that the Middle class do not exist but We can turn things around if electricity is constant. We cannot move forward on generators, inverters and attract foreign companies or investors . Suppose Toyota wants to build a plant to assemble cars in Lagos or Port Ha Court, Generators cannot sustain such businesses and hence forth there are no jobs. Lagos, Port Ha Court and some major cities or states are the economic lifeline of the country. To create more jobs in Nigeria in some key cities, electricity have to be constant or at least 16 hours in all part of major cities like Lagos . When the Federal , state governor take issue of electricity serious, then the average Nigerian will have a fighting chance

I've said same countless times. However, with the look of things, Nigeria will not experience 24/7 electricity in the next 100 years. Not a curse but an analysis of the entire electricity market/system.

Litmus:
Nigeria is not an easy country to quantify in such terms. For instance, I watched a Youtube Video featuring this African American guy whose market angle is on African Americans retruning to Africa. He says he likes Nigeria but he does not really. In any case, one of his trips to Africa was to Ivory Coast where he travelled to a home he considered example of the kind of lifestyle African Americans could expect if only they but travelled to Africa. Well, it surprised me (meaning I wasn’t impressed, sorry). In Nigeria, a cousin of mine who regularly complains of poverty, lives in a 18-bedroom house, all rooms En-suite. All floors of the house Italian marble. Home is well-furnished in combination of local carved furniture and western ones. They have TV and computers, American style fridge and while they don’t eat yoghurts and hams they eat beans, yams plantains, gari, pounded yams, fist, fruits indomi, bread, ovaltin, biscuits, soups, Adidi, portage, crabs and the rest of the stuff Nigerians generally eat now and then or often. He is unemployed and earns by renting, running a small church and Keke. We have offered to sponsor him to come abroad but he refuses. In the area he lives in Warri Delta, he couldn’t in truth be considered upper class or even middle class nor could he be considered poor. He does not own a car but majority of his mates own cars. These people couldn’t be classified upper class. Nigeria is not an easy place to quantify. With Nigeria, it is best to employ the term Relative.

You said 18 rooms en suite. And he is unemployed. Obviously, he didn't build that house but a wealthy relation did. He is simply a care taker and cannot even afford a car or maintain one.

That guy is just existing.

From your description, his earning power is close to zero. Rent comes once in a year and it looks like windfall, even if it's N500k, the middle class being described, actually earn such an amount every blessed month.

xyz123456:
No country can grow without large percentage of their percentage as middleclass. Infact the percentage of middle class is one of the most effective way to measure a country development. Because Govt responsibilites is to create middle class, not billionaire.
Nigeria is a country that her yesterday is better than today. So the middleclass is becoming extinct. For every 100,000 middleclass, one becomes a millionaire/billionaire while other 99,999 fall down into poverty. This is the reality of the country.
Its really a sad case. The country is getting worse....

Capitalism no fit developing country like Nigeria. I always feel socialism makes you grow at a faster pace

You were making a lot of sense until you mentioned socialism. Nigeria cannot survice as a socialist country with the kind of self centered people we have in Government. Socialism gives too much power to the government, this is why Venezuela is where it is today.

saasala:


You were making a lot of sense until you mentioned socialism. Nigeria cannot survice as a socialist country with the kind of self centered people we have in Government. Socialism gives too much power to the government, this is why Venezuela is where it is today.

Good point but we cannot afford to keep producing Dangotes et.c. It's better to have 1 million middle class Nigerians than a Dangote

No economic development mshewwww

abbey621:


Our population is around 200 million, workforce is about 40% of that = 80 million. Of those 80 million about 70% are underemployed or struggling entrepreneurs, leaving about 21 million. This means 21 million or 10% of the population could potentially be middle class, when you add yahoo boys, low level politicians and other scammers, we might be looking at 12-15% of the population.

Your analysis is the most logical from the lot

xyz123456:

Good point but we cannot afford to keep producing Dangotes et.c. It's better to have 1 million middle class Nigerians than a Dangote

This is where the government comes in. There are lots of folks with burning ideas that can build a long term and working business if only the government can support them with or implement a policy that will force the banks to support them with funds, then fix electricity.

More people with fine businesses will employ much more others, employment rate will nose dive and the economy more balanced.

abbey621:
This is the way I see it, if you have your own house that you built or bought, 2 or more vehicles and have over 10 million in your account, you are middle class. Anything below this is lower class or average. For you to be considered truly wealthy in Nigeria, you must own more than one house and have over 100 million in cash or financial investments like bonds, fixed deposit, TB, etc.

Some people have never seen anything good in Nigeria and will go to any length to put down the country. Don't get me wrong I'm not immune to the challenges but going by your contribution one can also say 70% of the world lives in poverty. While I don't know much about the OP I can deduce that he/she is one of the numerous Nigerians who equates money to everything. Let's assume you dont know . More than 50% of american adults don't have up to $5,000 in savings or investments. OP talks about cars (possessing 2 cars) which further shows that he/she knows not much outside the facet of Nigeria where cars are one of the parameters used in judging the wellness/comfort ability/class. In first and second world nations ( USA/Canada/UK/Germany/RSA/Singapore) cars are marketed all over the media with all kinds of offers (zero interest for six months/ 5 year monthly payment plan/ leasing options/ trade in options and other financing deals). With $1,000 pay-down I can drive a new car out of the lot after agreeing to some terms with the dealership. You don't own the car till you finish paying for it which can take as long as 5 years in some case. Two to three consecutive default payments could see the dealership get a court order to repossess the car. In Nigeria most people pay-down the full cost of the car (100%) which is one of the reasons used cars are more prevalent coupled with the high cost of importing a car.
On the other hand, I have not met any american during my 4 years stint as a college student who bought their home out rightly without a mortgage plan. They dont own these homes till after 10-15-35 years (depending on the payment plan). With the middle class standard you have set I'm keen to know how many of these cars and houses you have acquired and how much you have pilled up in your account. I have lived in two first world countries and have visited a couple of others dominated by the middle class and most of the inhabitants of these countries dont even have $10,000 in savings. These countries are far more expensive than Nigeria. My housing cost about ten years ago in a shared room is more than what I pay today as rental in Lekki and I am more comfortable (in terms of housing) now than then. A friend of mine rented a 2-bed apartment for about 5.2M per annum somewhere in victoria island. After 6 years he moved back to USA and was paying $4,250 monthly for a one bed apartment in midtown manhattan. He didn't own the house and he had one car. By your definition he is in the lower class but yet he moved to NYC to attend business school and still lived a middle class life in USA with the resources earned here in Nigeria. May be you should also move to a first world country and see if you cant fit into the middle class immediately.

Teewhy2:

That is true, if you look at the buying power of most of these people( "rich" ) and compare it with their counterparts abroad you will see that maybe the only rich people are not more than 2 percent while the others are glorified middle class, and out of these 2%, 1.5% are actually politicians or head of government parastatals.

True, but I'm not wholly keen on comparisons with wealthier countries though; they're obviously wealthier in many relevant aspects and standard/cost of living vary. For someone to build a house (a duplex) and buy at least a car and 10million naira in his/her bank account, many people would consider such a person rich. But even by Nigerian standards, 10 million naira with a house and car(s) is not really "rich" enough and would be upper middle class. You can look at it as upper middle class and lower middle class.

abnot:


Some people have never seen anything good in Nigeria and will go to any length to put down the country. Don't get me wrong I'm not immune to the challenges but going by your contribution one can also say 70% of the world lives in poverty. While I don't know much about the OP I can deduce that he/she is one of the numerous Nigerians who equates money to everything. Let's assume you dont know . More than 50% of american adults don't have up to $5,000 in savings or investments. OP talks about cars (possessing 2 cars) which further shows that he/she knows not much outside the facet of Nigeria where cars are one of the parameters used in judging the wellness/comfort ability/class. In first and second world nations ( USA/Canada/UK/Germany/RSA/Singapore) cars are marketed all over the media with all kinds of offers (zero interest for six months/ 5 year monthly payment plan/ leasing options/ trade in options and other financing deals). With $1,000 pay-down I can drive a new car out of the lot after agreeing to some terms with the dealership. You don't own the car till you finish paying for it which can take as long as 5 years in some case. Two to three consecutive default payments could see the dealership get a court order to repossess the car. In Nigeria most people pay-down the full cost of the car (100%) which is one of the reasons used cars are more prevalent coupled with the high cost of importing a car.
On the other hand, I have not met any american during my 4 years stint as a college student who bought their home out rightly without a mortgage plan. They dont own these homes till after 10-15-35 years (depending on the payment plan). With the middle class standard you have set I'm keen to know how many of these cars and houses you have acquired and how much you have pilled up in your account. I have lived in two first world countries and have visited a couple of others dominated by the middle class and most of the inhabitants of these countries dont even have $10,000 in savings. These countries are far more expensive than Nigeria. My housing cost about ten years ago in a shared room is more than what I pay today as rental in Lekki and I am more comfortable (in terms of housing) now than then. A friend of mine rented a 2-bed apartment for about 5.2M per annum somewhere in victoria island. After 6 years he moved back to USA and was paying $4,250 monthly for a one bed apartment in midtown manhattan. He didn't own the house and he had one car. By your definition he is in the lower class but yet he moved to NYC to attend business school and still lived a middle class life in USA with the resources earned here in Nigeria. May be you should also move to a first world country and see if you cant fit into the middle class immediately.

I was born in Nigeria grew up in Mushin, went to the university in Ogun state but I've also lived in America for almost a decade now. I have multiple properties and while I am considered middle class in America, in Nigeria I'm way beyond what anyone would call middle class.

My analysis comes from the point of view of working Nigerians and what it takes to live comfortable in Nigeria. It is from the lense of a Nigerian hence the standard abroad does not apply. An average mortgage in America is about $200k, that is about 70 million Niaira and you're right most Americans cannot afford that outright hence mortgage but you have to keep in mind Americans are also inherently more lavish than Nigerians. They spend on unnecessary things from more than 5 tv streaming subscriptions, to making sure they eat 3 imes a day even when they are not hungry. Let's not forget every holiday they spend money to buy things they don't really need and most of them could care less about saving for their children or grandchildren. Middle class in Nigeria can NEVER have the same definition as middle class in the USA or even the UK, if we don't stop comparing ourselves with standards set for abroad we would always fall short. I make about $100,000 a year after taxes and if I spent like the average American I would not be able to save 1/4th of what I save now, which I find ridiculous! My savings have allowed me to invest in Nigeria, if I simply invested in the U.S, I would have to wait till I'm over 60 to start enjoying my retirement.

Chukwurah003:
PDP eliminated the middle class

Wrong. They actually established it and grew it greatly.

The banking recapitalisaion helped to create consumer loans which are essential for middle class existence.

The middle class exist but has been heavily decimated by the collapse of the naira, loss of millions of jobs and very poor growth over the past four years.

It has been forecasted that the next 4 years will also be of unimpressive growth. That means the middle class will not grow and possibly even decrease further.

400billionman:


No brother Obasanjo reforms in the Banking and Telecoms sector of 1999 to 2003 brought back the middle class. Even the stock market boom of years earlier than 2008 grew the middle class. Ring tone millionaires were members of the middle class.

I was also a member of the middle class for long under PDP where you fuel your car tank to the brim and use it till it finishes then you refuel it to full again.

You buy drinks, soaps, detergents, milk in cartons. You have every little thing in its abundance yet you are a mere salary earner who does not engage in sharp practices or corruption.

you actually made very valid points. I thought middle class families disappeared in the mid 90s due to the sustained effect of military rules. I know better now.
Thanks.

xyz123456:
No country can grow without large percentage of their percentage as middleclass. Infact the percentage of middle class is one of the most effective way to measure a country development. Because Govt responsibilites is to create middle class, not billionaire.
Nigeria is a country that her yesterday is better than today. So the middleclass is becoming extinct. For every 100,000 middleclass, one becomes a millionaire/billionaire while other 99,999 fall down into poverty. This is the reality of the country.
Its really a sad case. The country is getting worse....

Capitalism no fit developing country like Nigeria. I always feel socialism makes you grow at a faster pace

Socialism actually makes you poorer. Buhari is a socialist. He is by nature anti-market. See what his policies have done to the economy