Need for ‘State of Emergency’ on Hunger
Over the last few months, there has been surge in hunger occasioned by online begging by Nigerians who live in sheer agony and suffering given the state of affairs of the nation. Sunday Ehigiator writes that the pockets of hunger protests in some states has given rise the need to declare a state of emergency on ‘hunger in the land’
“These days, I now fear to post pictures, or open chats from friends or families on Facebook, WhatsApp, or any other social media platforms I belong, without first spying on the messages from my drop-down to be sure it’s not another, ‘Please I’m urgently in need of your assistance with N3,000’, a.k.a. ‘urgent 3k’ billing.
“The fear of billing is the beginning of wisdom. It’s like everyone on my contact list at the moment is a message away from billing you. Everyone is complaining of hunger, and inflation in the prices of food, and even water. It is like we are in the end times in Nigeria already,” cries out Akinwunmi Ayodele, a Nigerian university student.
In a voice video circulating online, some market women also cried out, while one said, “Things are too costly; we’re tired,” another fish seller grumbled. “A carton of Titus is N100,000; it used to cost N17,000. Kote fish is going for N60,000. Shawa, which we used to sell for N70, now goes for N700. Garri, which used to be N50, is now N700 for half paint bucket.”
This is the current state of Nigerians. Since the beginning of President Tinubu’s administration about nine months ago, prices of food and other commodities have continued to rise, including the Naira to Dollar rate, as hunger rules the land.
Spike in Cost of Food Prices
Inflation accelerated after President Bola Tinubu’s sudden announcement of the removal of the petrol subsidy in his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, followed later by the CBN’s policy of floating the naira.
Though lauded by experts, the duo policies of Mr Tinubu have seen petrol prices rise from N145 per litre to N630, while the naira plunges against the naira in the parallel market, trading at about N1,500 to $1.
Nigerians have cried out over economic hardship with inflation and food prices spiking under Mr Tinubu’s watch. Earlier in the week, protests over soaring food prices rocked two northern states, Niger and Kano.
Some Yoruba market women in Ogun lambasted the president for promulgating economic policies that negatively affect the prices of goods and cause untold hardship for Nigerians, threatening to beat the president up if they saw him.
Tinubu acknowledged the country’s prevalent hardship but urged Nigerians to show understanding.
In December 2023, Tinubu in a public address said, “The financial re-engineering of our country is ongoing. We are determined to deliver Nigeria safely through the tunnel of hope, stability, and economic prosperity.”
Recently, fuji maestro Wasiu Ayinde, aka Kwam 1, also Tinubu’s praise singer during his campaign, cried out over economic hardship in the country.
“Nigerians are angry, traders are angry, why is kidnapping on the increase?” Kwam 1 sang, lamenting the naira freefall against the dollar.
As of the last update by the Food and Agriculture Organisation in December, food inflation was placed at 32.84 per cent. Nigerians are struggling to cope with the rising cost of food items in the country.
The most recent National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report shows that for November 2023, the year-on-year Food inflation rate was an increase of 8.72 per cent points from the November 2022 rate of 24.13 per cent.
The yearly spike in food inflation was driven by higher prices in categories such as Bread and Cereals, Oil and Fat, Potatoes, Yam and Other Tubers, Fish, Fruit, Meat, Vegetables, Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa.
On a month-on-month basis, the Food inflation rate for November 2023 was 2.42 per cent, which was a 0.51 per cent increase compared to the October 2023 rate of 1.91 per cent.
The monthly increase in food inflation was linked to a rise in the rate of average prices for Bread and Cereals, Oil and Fat, Meat, Coffee, Tea, Cocoa, Potatoes, Yam, and Other Tubers.
The average cost of getting food and drinks has increased by 92.73 per cent in the past three years.
Also, the cost of cooking a meal is now about 73 per cent of the minimum wage for average Nigerian households as inflation bites hard.
Previous and Current Food Prices
A recent market survey by THISDAY, across major markets in Lagos state, including, Daleko Rice Market, Mile 12, and Balogun Market revealed that a bag of rice which was sold for N35,000 nine months ago is now sold between N65,000 and N75,000.
A bag of yellow garri, which sold for N25,000, has jumped to N40,000, while white garri now sells for N30,000 against N13,000 for which it sold last year.
A bag of corn that sold for N19,000 last year May now sells for N66,000, a bag of Millet sold for N18,000 now sells for N55,000, while flour for baking and pastries sells for N50,000 against N28,000 for which it sold last year May.
A ‘long slate’ of ‘Titus’ (mackerel) now sells for N125,000 against N78,000 for which it sold last year. A square cartoon of ‘Titus’ sold for N38,000 the previous year now sells for N85,000, while a 25 litre of palm oil formerly sold for N31,000 now sells for N45,000. Indomitable which used to be sold for N3,950 per carton now sells at N7,200. A bag of Honey beans (50kg) used to be sold at N60,000, now sells at N97,000
Quest for ‘Urgent 3k’
No doubt, the rising cost of food, and inflation has had a huge impact on the living standards of many more Nigerians. This has also had an impact on the number of people who take to social media to beg people for money.
Before now, it was more common to see people begging for urgent 2k (urgent N2,000) online, but at the present day, the goal post has shifted to urgent 3k (urgent N3,000), because N2,000 can practically not cook or buy you a 3-square mean anymore in Nigeria.
More Nigerians have been further pushed to the poverty lane. It is said in popular parlance that there are now two economic classes in Nigeria, ‘the low-income earners and the ‘high-income’ earners. This is because the supposed middle-income earners, known as the middle class, have now fallen off the ladder to join the ‘low-income’ earners.
There is now a new class known as ‘No income earners’, who majorly fend off social media begging for urgent 3k’s all over the place, under several guises such as the need to pay house rent, school fees, and medical bills amongst others.
However, the underlying factor is they all beg to put food on their table. This also tells of the increasing number of beggars now scattered all around busy streets across the country.
Market Pulse
Speaking to a foodstuff trader, Iya Blessing, who trades at Kuto market in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, she lamented, “Things have gone from bad to worse. When you are stuck up today and finish selling, then want to return to restock, you will find out that prices have increased just within 24 hours. Foodstuffs are adding to the price every day.
“It is even worse for us selling rice. We now sell rice at N73,000 as of this morning. As of yesterday, it was N65,800. The most painful part is that all these boys helping us to offload the rice from the trucks and carry it to our shops now steal from the rice.
“They use a shucker to put a hole in the bag and remove some quantity. I just returned from the police station where I went to use the police to arrest two of the boys. They are both pleading that it is hunger that makes them do it. I had no choice but to forgive them and have compassion for them. I was even the one who settled their bail, they have no one. This is how bad the country is right now.”
Also speaking, a citizen identified as Mrs. Mary Nwokike noted, “I don’t understand what is currently happening. I went to the market to buy crates of eggs for my egg roll and other confectionery business last week, eggs sold for N2,800. Today a crate of eggs is now N4,500.
“This is just within a week. Are the chickens laying golden eggs, because I can’t phantom it? How much will I now charge my customers? They said the cost of grains and millet they feed the chickens with is increasing daily.
“This country is depressing. Very soon we will all start to see or hear people die of hunger along our streets with the way things are going if urgent care isn’t taken. The government should please come to our aid. People are hungry in this country. We can no longer eat a comfortable 2 square meal.
“Three-square meals are now a luxury that I and my family can no longer afford. Please help us beg those in power to help us do something about this to reduce the cost of food in Nigeria.”
Another trader, Bartholomew Ugwujah, said the spike in the prices of food is alarming and expressed concern for poor Nigerians who might not be able to afford them.
“I don’t know whether the Nigerian masses can bear what is happening in the market space now. Formerly, a packet of Maggi was N600; now it is N1000; a ‘mudu’ of garri was formerly N300, now it is N600. A ‘mudu’ of rice formerly was N1,200; now it is N2,000.”
He added, “It has affected me in that before, I used to have 10 bags of rice, now I have three. Before, I stocked 20 cartoons of spaghetti. Now, I have two.
“Every day you go to the market, your money is depreciating. Because what you bought today for N100, tomorrow you will buy it for N300. Meaning, you can’t stock the number of cartoons you stocked before.”
Pockets of Protests
Following the current hike in prices of food, on Monday, February 5, 2024, a group of women in Minna, Niger State, blocked the ever-busy Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu Roundabout and called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to address the problem of ‘hunger in the land.’
Similarly, Youth in Kano also protested over the hardship in the country and the state governor, Abba Yusuf, assured them that he would take their complaints to the President.
APC: Opposition Instigating anti-Tinubu Protests
However, the All Progressive Congress (APC) in reaction to the pockets of protest, accused the opposition of instigating the protests against President Tinubu’s administration in the guise of protesting against the increasing cost of living in the country.
In a statement, by its spokesman, Mr. Felix Morka, the APC said in their arrant desperation to portray the APC-led administration as under-performing, “opposition parties have resorted to instigating unsuspecting young people to protest in the streets of some major cities.”
It said the protests in Minna and Kano on Monday were the manifestation of this devious and unpatriotic plot.
“That the protests happened simultaneously in both cities is not coincidental. It bears the bold stamp of an orchestrated and coordinated effort to instigate unrest and undermine the government. This mercenary opposition tactic is a clear and present threat to public peace and national security.
“While we recognise the right of citizens to engage in peaceful protest, we urge our good people to be vigilant and not lend themselves to the treacherous attempt by the opposition to promote social strife by its incendiary rhetoric and manipulative plots.”
PDP Reacts
Countering the APC’s accusation, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) asked President Tinubu and the APC to let Nigerians breathe by allowing the citizens to freely protest unjust policies.
In a signed statement by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the party also condemned what it described as vicious attempts by the Tinubu Presidency and the APC to politicise the protest by Nigerians against the current economic hardship.
It said citizens took to the streets to protest worsening insecurity in the country, occasioned by the anti-people policies and unprecedented corruption of the President Tinubu-led APC administration.
“The action of the APC in threatening Nigerians for exercising their democratic and constitutional right to protest in the face of misrule, agonizing poverty, hunger, killings and other harrowing experiences under the Tinubu administration shows that the APC is insensitive and relishes the life-discounting situation in the country.
“These thoughtless policies by President Tinubu and the APC are responsible for the crippling of the productive sector with a 28 per cent inflation rate, crashing of the naira from N167 to over N1,500 to a dollar, closure of millions of businesses and mass exodus of international companies from Nigeria, resulting in a distressing 41 per cent unemployment rate and unbearable pressure on millions of families across the country.”
‘Deal with your Failed Policies’, LP Reacts
In like manner, the LP advised President Tinubu and the APC to deal with the fallout of their failed policies instead of looking for scapegoats to blame for their ineptitude.
National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Obiora Ifoh, in an interview, said the APC was simply trying to play the ostrich because, even its members who are ordinary citizens, are suffering like their peers on the streets and have lost any genuine reason to continue to hide under the guise of party support to deny facts.
“Those who took to the streets in Minna, Niger State, a state controlled by the APC went to the streets not as members of opposition parties but as citizens bearing the brunt of this administration’s ineptitude and lack of preparation for governance.”
Fix Prices of Goods, Court Orders Presidency
Meanwhile, Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered President Bola Tinubu-led administration to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products within seven days.
According to reports, Justice Lewis-Allagoa gave the order on Wednesday, February 7, while delivering judgment in a suit No FHC/L/CS/869/2023, filed by human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana in 2023, against the Price Control Board and the Attorney-General of the Federation, listed as the first and second defendants.
Delivering the judgement, the court specifically ordered the government to fix the price of milk, flour, salt, sugar, bicycles, and their spare parts, matches, motorcycles and their spare parts, motor vehicles and their spare parts as well as petroleum products, which include diesel, Premium Motor Spirit (otherwise called petrol) and kerosene.
Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, according to the report, approached the court to determine whether, under Section 4 of the Price Control Act, the first respondent is carrying out its duty to impose a price on any goods that are of the kind specified in the First Schedule to the Price Control Act.
He, therefore, sought among other reliefs; “A declaration that the failure or refusal of the respondents to fix the prices of bicycles and spare parts; flour; matches; milk; motorcycles and spare parts; motor vehicles and spare parts; salt; sugar and petroleum products including diesel, petrol motor spirit, and kerosene is illegal as it offends the provision of Section 4 of the Price Control Act, Cap., Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
