Every Nigerian knows either by observing or not that socially, there are three classes of family. The upper class. The middle class. The lower class.
The upper class from the perspective of a Nigerian are the affluent ones. They can afford all their needs and wants. It doesn’t matter what their job is, so long as they have built or bought their own house (certainly not a bungalow). They have their driver and domestic staff. They have someone who opens the gate upon their arrival. They have fancy breakfasts of fried bread and beacon, Jams on bread, Quaker oat, and oatmeal. They go on vacations with their children who are chubby looking, and who distribute souvenirs from their vacation to their friends in school.
The middle class; They live by budget because they can not afford all they want. They live on rented spaces or they built a bungalow. They have a defined salary from a defined job with few job benefits. They have a car but no personal driver. No domestic staff or rather a poor relative they have offered to help bring to the city. Their breakfast isn’t fancier than Bread and beverages. They travel between the city and the village instead of vacations to fancy countries unless vacations paid for by their jobs; that, too, is uncommon.
The lower class, on a stable, are the poor. There has never been need for a budget because there is nothing to budget with and for. Sometimes they don’t have a job, sometimes they do. They do menial jobs for the middle class as well as they do all their house works and more themselves. They do not own a car and have no plan to own one, although they wish. The integrity of a member of this class is blamed as the cause of their poverty. Breakfast isn’t a word for them. Most times Lunch and dinner are same meal. They live in houses bequeathed to them. A house of patch and repair. A two room house - a bedroom and everything-else room. They are those you think of when you hear the word "charity", "help the poor".
Whereas statistics say 40% of Nigerans live BELOW poverty level, most Nigerans like me has chosen to believe that we are from a middle class family even while we do not feel fully represented by one of the classes. Maybe because no one wants to be called poor or this is simply our perspective - our point of view; how we see ourselves!
