By Emma Una

CALABAR— HIGH cost of living in Nigeria has inflicted poverty on the people with many dying of hunger and diseases since they can no longer afford to buy basic food items and provisions which prices have gone beyond their reach.

File: MASSOB protests

Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Cross River State chapter made this disclosure in Calabar through its Public Relations Officer, Mr Okon Effiom.

It said that with the state of things, there are clear indications that the Nigerian state can no longer take care of its people which accounts for the failed system that led to the high cost of living.

“Even at Christmas, a period characterised by celebration and merriment, many people could not afford to cook rice for their families, which is the basic staple food during such time, because of high level of poverty in the land.”

According to the MASSOB Spokesman, “the standard of living in the country has depreciated abysmally in just one year as the cost of basic items has quadrupled, taking them beyond the reach of the ordinary person, thereby making them to easily succumb to diseases and death while some who are unable to bear the situation have taken their own lives.

“Between 2015 and this year, the cost of living has risen to over 500 percent, which is way beyond the ordinary citizen, which accounts for the high death rate through diseases and suicide amongst our people.”

He said the state of affairs in the country lent credence to MASSOB’s struggle for secession through peaceful means and build a nation of their own based on the vision of Ralph Uwazuruike.