By Charles Kumolu
The price of onions has gone beyond what I expected. I can say it is one of the most expensive food items in the market today.

Can you believe that this small quantity with me was bought for N1,000?” That was how Mrs Christiana Udemba summed up the food crisis this yuletide period. Indeed, some traders who deal on local food stuffs, especially those brought in from the Northern parts of the country, wore mournful looks when Vanguard Features visited some of the major markets in the city on Tuesday.

Their complaint was that business is very dull because the commodities are not only very expensive, they are even nowhere to be found. Markets visited included those at  Agboju,  Ijegun, Yaba  and Mile 12. At Mile 12 which serves as the depot for food stuffs coming in from the north, Vanguard Features learnt that  there are no fresh consignment of pepper and onions.

This implies that the Christmas season may turn bleak for many families who may not be able to afford to pay the exorbitant prices being charged.

On a recent visit to Sokoto, VF found out that farm products like tomatoes, onions, pepper and others were unusually expensive.

An attempt to unravel the cause the artificial shortage, revealed that the flooding that ravaged the state and other parts of the north recently contributed largely to the scarcity..

Tomatoes vendor at Agboju Market inLagos

“We lost all our farmland to the flood. We have someone who had about hundred bags of rice, today he is  left with nothing. You know it happened during the harvest period. You can go round the market and feel the pulse of the  people . They are full of lamentations. That is why people in other parts of Nigeria will feel our pains because we don’t have anything to carry to other parts of the country,” Malam Bala Kwakwalawa told VF.

His position was corroborated by VF findings in Lagos.

It was gathered that the shortage extended to the city, where prices of onions and pepper  have gone up astronomically.

Mrs Tare Williams, who sells food items at Ijegun Market in Satellite Town, Lagos, noted that the question now is not the price, but the unavailability of the products

“Before the scarcity, I used to buy a bag of onions for N6,000 but now it goes for N20,000.  I can’t afford it, that is why I have stopped selling it. The same thing applies to pepper. We were told that water affected them this year. People have now resorted to Ghanaian pepper which is dark and very hot.” she noted.

Another food vendor Mrs Adindu Nkemjika told VF that the food shortage is not related to the season’s demands as it started as far back as October.

As far as she is concerned, people should not be surprised that food is scarce. According to her, the relevant authorities had enough time to forestall this festive shortage.

“You people saw this coming, then why coming to ask us questions. We all knew what happened in the North this year. Why did government not introduce alternative measures to prevent this shortage, especially when they knew that Christmas is around the corner? Anyway Nigerians are used to coping, we will come out of it, after all Christmas is just for one day,” Nkemjika noted.

Her views were corroborated by findings from some markets in Lagos. It was lamentations galore for traders and their customers as they came face to  face with  this reality .

Apart from the food scarcity, Nigerians are also trying to cope with the escalating transport fares.

A trip to Yaba, Mazamaza and Mile 2 bus terminals shows that fares have out gone astronomically. Though a trip to Mazamaza in the early hours of Tuesday showed a large passenger turnout, an  official of one the transport companies lamented that the turnout was below their expectations.

According to him, “I cant really rely on what we have seen so far, but if we were to work on that I would say that people are not traveling much this time around. In the past we used to load about six buses but we are still battling with three and four now. Our prices are not even as high as they were last year. What we are collecting now can not be compared to what we collected last year, though there is little increment from the normal price.”

When prodded to know why there is always price hike even in the absence of fuel scarcity, he furiously said, “ don’t you know the owners of our companies? Go and ask them, you are asking as if you don’t know why.

That is the practice every where, anytime there is festival, we increase the prices from our headquarters. So, fuel or diesel scarcity does not arise.”

Further findings at Young Shall Grow bus terminal in Maza-maza, revealed an increase in transport fare to the eastern part of the country.

It was gathered that before now, a trip to Onitsha costs N2,600, but it has gone up to N5000.
Same applies to Abuja that is now N5000 as against the usual N3000.

Commenting on this, a traveler, Obinna Ekemesie, who spoke to VF decried the hike in fares whenever there is a festive period.

Ekemesie wondered why the government is yet to intervene in what he described as “yearly Christmas exploitation.”

“My wife and two children left in the morning and I payed N10,000 for two seats. I payed N5,000 this afternoon for myself. Ordinarily I would have payed N2,600 for each person. We are used to it every year but the government should come in and stop this greed by owners of transport companies,” he said