The immediate past Minister of Transportation and former Governor of River State, Rotimi Amaechi, on Wednesday described the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the last president to create a middle class in Nigeria.

According to Amaechi, the Obasanjo-led Federal Government created an economy that generated jobs, which brought about the middle class.

Amaechi made this remark at a two-day event tagged, “Strengthening Nigeria’s Democracy: Pathway to Good Governance and Political Integrity,” organized by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), and the National Peace Committee (NPC) in Abuja.

Speaking as a panellist during a session on the “Impact of democracy on the national economy,” the former minister decried the current growing gap between the rich and poor in Nigeria.

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He blamed the gap on the absence of a functional middle class as a critical challenge in Nigeria’s current-day economy.

“The last time we had the middle class was under President Olusegun Obasanjo. He created an economy that generated jobs. Even though some argued it was a shaky middle class that disappeared at the end of every month when salaries were paid, at least we had a middle class.

“Now, it’s either you are rich or you are poor. If social housing and investments in agriculture had been implemented alongside subsidy removal, people would not feel the impact as harshly as they do now.”