Middle-class apathy to governance issues
For a decade now there has been a growing refrain about the rising middle class across the globe. The global middle class is currently made up of 2.3 billion people who spend about $7 trillion annually.
Economists and business analysts tend to define middle-class status simply in monetary terms, labelling people as middle class if they fall within the middle of the income distribution for their countries, or else surpass some absolute level of consumption that raises a family above the subsistence level of the poor. But middle-class status is better defined by education, occupation and the ownership of assets, which are far more consequential in predicting political behaviour. They are technology-savvy and use social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to broadcast information and organise demonstrations.
A 2008 Goldman Sachs report defined this group as those with incomes between $6,000 and $30,000 a year and predicted that it would grow by some 2 billion people by 2030. The European Union Institute for Security Studies in 2012 predicted that the number of people in that category would grow from 1.8 billion in 2009 to 3.2 billion in 2020 and 4.9 billion in 2030. The United Nations says a member of the new global middle class earns between $10 and $100 a day, and thus has spare income for consumption. On this basis, it estimates the middle class will grow from 1.8 billion in 2009 to 3.2 billion in 2020.
In Africa, there has been a powerful rise in household income in many of the continent’s key frontier economies in recent years, which has allowed the formation and strengthening of a substantial middle class. Although the continent has always had a modest middle class made up mostly of government workers or others tied to the ruling elite, the middle ranks have begun to expand in recent years with private sector employees. The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that Africa already has a middle class of more than 300 million people or more than 34 percent of the continent’s population.
Since the middle classes tend to be the ones who pay taxes, they should have a direct interest in making government accountable. Members of the middle class are more likely to be spurred to action by the failure of society to meet their rapidly rising expectations for economic and social advancement. While the poor struggle to survive from day to day, disappointed middle-class people are much more likely to engage in political activism to get their way.
Across the world and all through history, the middle class, owing to their exposure and income level, has always been at the forefront of major revolutions. The French, Russian and Chinese revolutions were all led by discontented middle class. Turkey and Brazil over the past few months have been both paralysed by massive demonstrations expressing deep discontent with their governments’ performance led by the middle class. In Turkey, they objected to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s development-at-all-cost policies and authoritarian manner. In Brazil, they object to entrenched and highly corrupt political elite that has showcased glamour projects like the World Cup and Rio Olympics while failing to provide basic services like health and education to the general public.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria, where it is estimated that the middle class grew by 600 percent between 2000 and 2014 and constitutes about 11 percent of the country’s total population, the middle class has been largely characterised by inexplicable apathy to governance issues. In spite of its rapidly expanding population, this group is yet to develop a strong voice to hold government accountable. As such, successive governments have run the country like personal estates without let or hindrance.
As the 2015 elections draw close, the country’s middle class must rise from its slumber and participate actively in all the processes to ensure that the right people get into positions of authority. Thereafter, they must begin to engage governments at all levels and hold them accountable when electoral promises are not being kept or when anti-people policies are enunciated. This is the only way for Nigeria to make headway. Standing aloof will only mean that the country will continue to grow from bad to worse.
On this note, we totally agree with Edmund Burke, the 18th century Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher, who once said that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”.