Nigeria’s middle class are now beggars – Chimamanda Adichie

Award-winning writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has voiced serious concern over Nigeria’s worsening economic crisis, noting that it has plunged many formerly stable middle-class citizens into beggars

Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television’s Amazing Africans, Adichie lamented that what worries her most is the escalating hardship endured by ordinary Nigerians.

“Life has become so hard in Nigeria, and I can see it. For example, people who were formerly kind of securely middle class, not that life was rosy for them, but they got by—are now people who beg and are in need. That worries me greatly,” she said.

Adichie noted that the soaring cost of living, particularly food, should be a major yardstick for assessing government performance.

“The level of suffering, how expensive food has become… I think the biggest political judgment one can make is about the lives of ordinary people. People talk about the stock market. Personally, I don’t really care about those sorts of things. What I care about is: that person earning minimum wage, how is that person getting on in this economy? It’s the suffering that worries me the most. And it’s terrible.”

She also cautioned that prolonged hardship could push even law-abiding citizens toward dangerous decisions.

“It’s not to excuse crime, but I think when life gets very hard, even people who before would not have considered certain things suddenly are willing to, and that’s dangerous to society.”

Reflecting on her literary path, the Half of a Yellow Sun author recalled receiving over two dozen rejections for her debut novel Purple Hibiscus, but insisted that abandoning writing was never an option.

“The thought of quitting writing is never an option for me because writing is my vocation. Writing is really what I believe I am here to do; it’s a bit spiritual. I feel that is a gift that I am given, and so even if I hadn’t been published, I would still be writing today. So, the idea of giving up writing was never an option. But it (the rejection) was demoralising.”

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