Christmas: Residents in Ogun groan as cost of foodstuffs skyrockets

Residents of Ogun State on Sunday celebrated this year’s Christmas lamenting the high cost of regular items in the market.

To many, the Naira notes in their possession seemed to have lost their purchasing power.

The high cost of items in this 2022 Christmas festivity caused some Nigerians to remember the days of former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom they rejected in 2015 for President Muhammadu Buhari.

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 Kuto Market in Abeokuta 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.

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. No matter how small, a chicken now sells at a rate above N8,000.

“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. Yesterday (Friday), 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 Ajibade John, a resident of Obantoko.

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

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, many residents were seen on the streets with jerry cans in search of where to buy fuel.