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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Nigerian crisis and the middle class |
Author: | Aina, Tade Akin |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Vierteljahres-Berichte: Probleme der internationalen Zusammenarbeit |
Issue: | 116 |
Pages: | 173-180 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | middle class economic recession |
Abstract: | The development of the Nigerian middle class was tied up with the process of colonial urbanization and the occupational needs of the colonial economy. Colonial urbanization was not based on production, but rather on the provision of services and on administration. Other elements in the development of the middle class were defined by this nonproductive orientation. The Nigerian middle class thus created a political economy based on an inordinate consumption of foreign goods with limited and extraverted internal production. The economic crisis of the 1980s is most clearly expressed in the crisis of the middle class, which is essentially a crisis of adaptation to a lower level of consumption and a new occupational profile. In response to the loss of their previous benefits and privileges, members of the middle class react by migrating, turning to self-employment, or withdrawing and becoming apathetic. On the other hand, an intermediate agrarian class is emerging. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English (p. 121), French (p. 125), and German (p. 117). |