This coming Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 8pm, the conversation on the front burner is the new economic reality, the cost-of-living crisis that has increasingly blurred the traditional boundaries between the rich, the poor and the middle class.
The popular monthly interview discourse, Boiling Point Arena, is lining up three distinguished personalities in an Independence Special edition dedicated particularly to Nigerian workers.
The topic of discourse is: “Where Did the Middle Class Go? How Are Nigerians Surviving the Cost-of-Living Crisis and What Can Government Do to Ease Hardship/ Pain?”
The Guest Speakers/Discussants for the edition are a pioneer former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, now an Octogenarian/elder statesman, Prof Abdullahi Sule-Kano, a professor of Political Science at the Bayero University, Kano, and Dr Paul Alaje, a prominent economist and versatile financial analyst.
Frontline traditional ruler, the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Oba Prof Saka Matemilola will Chair the session and herald the discourse with a keynote address.
To be transmitted via Zoom, the discourse, over a two-hour duration starting from 8pm, will be broadcast live on seven partner radio stations across Lagos, Ogun and Delta States.
Boiling Point Arena, the once-in-a-month current affairs programme which debuted four years ago, is hosted by a veteran journalist and communication strategy expert, Ayo Arowojolu.
The special edition comes at a time when the traditional idea of the Nigerian middle class appears increasingly under pressure.
The combination is significant. Labour, politics and economics, three lenses through which the Nigerian worker’s current reality can be examined.
Perhaps, the most important question facing the discussion is whether Nigeria’s economic growth and reforms are translating into improved living conditions for the people who make up the backbone of the economy.
Among the partner radio stations are; WASH 94.9FM, Lagos, Sweet 107.1FM, Abeokuta, Roots 97.1FM, Abeokuta, Erimbe 94.7FM, Shagamu, Women Radio 91.7FM, Mowe, Opera Tune 106.3FM, Abeokuta, and Kruzz 92.9FM, Asaba, Delta State alongside a cable television station, NSTV, on GOtv Channel.
For decades, the Nigerian middle class represented the aspirational heart of society.
It occupied the space between poverty and affluence—a population of workers, professionals, entrepreneurs and families who might not have been wealthy but could afford a reasonably decent standard of living and, importantly, could look forward to improving it.
Today, however, that confidence appears increasingly fragile. A salary that once covered a family’s basic needs may now disappear under the combined weight of food, rent, transport, school fees, electricity, healthcare and other obligations.
This creates a fascinating social paradox: Can someone be classified as middle class by income while living like the poor?
These questions expose the difficulty of placing Nigerians neatly into economic categories.
Economic status is not simply about what a person earns. It is also about what that income can buy, what assets the person owns, what obligations they carry, how secure their future is and whether they can withstand an economic shock.
