Lagos residents celebrate Christmas amidst high cost of food items, fuel scarcity, others

Many residents in Lagos have lamented the high cost of food items and other regular items at the market, forcing them to celebrate the Christmas in low-key

According to them, since the Buhari administration came on board, the cost of food items and others have been skyrocketing, with no visible steps taken to rescue the situation.

A rice seller at Daleko Market in Mushin area of the state, recalled that a 50kg bag of foreign parboiled rice was N9,000 or below as at 2015. Today, the same quantity of rice now sells in Abeokuta at the rate of N35,000 and more in other places.

“As a result of this, rice, which is usually the most preferred food during Christmas, is no more affordable for the ordinary citizen. People didn’t come out to buy rice because it is too expensive. We are just here, no buyers. Everything is too costly, people will just price and go away. We don’t really make enough sales like before,” Ms Ajani, told our correspondent.

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Apart from rice, the cost of a live chicken has also increased by more than 100% compared to what it used to be in the previous years.

“As at last year, I still bought a big fowl at the rate of N5,000; a turkey was sold at N25,000. Years before, we used to buy chickens for around N3,000 or so. I wanted to buy chicken and they said one is N10,000. That is too much. A turkey is N35k and above, depending on the size. I don’t really know what is happening in this nation,” said Sina Dare in Ipaja..

According to poultry farmers, the price of chicken feed has increased beyond what an average farmer can afford, noting thatmany decided not to go into the business because of the risk involved.

While the people were struggling to get food for the festival, the scarcity of fuel is another major problem they had to contend with.

It was observed that fuel is not available in many filling stations across the State and the few stations dispensing fuel sell around N260 per litre.

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The few filling stations selling at the normal rate had long queues of vehicles fighting to buy petrol. Commercial drivers and cyclists are always on the queue to buy the product at a price they believe is more economical for their business.

Also, a sizable number of people refused to travel to their home communities for the Christmas celebration. This is as transporters increased fares across major motor parks.

Before Christmas, the hike in fuel price had caused many motorists to jerk up their charges. The situation worsened as the yuletide came, thereby preventing some people from travelling.

“I didn’t travel to the East this Christmas because I don’t know how I will raise over N100,000 to transport myself and my wife to and from Abia. That’s why I’ve decided to remain in Abeokuta. Christmas no dey finish, we will go next year,” Chimezie said as he spoke while arranging his wares.

Chimezie’s comment elicited reactions from his fellow Easterners, who said they would travel next year after another President must have been voted in.