22 INVESTIGATION
Sanctity of Truth
Monday, May 26, 2014
Food, a nagging problem for most homes it was not long before the mother was identified, and the child given back to her. Mama Sumbo says she lost interest in the money owed her. “Everybodi no say tins deh hard nowadays. So, e fit be say the woman never eat, and instead to go thief, she do wetin she do that time.” However, if these tales were to come from a drought-stricken country, they would have made a lot of sense. But Nigeria, a country in the tropical region, invites description as a large food basin. The sky opens up for much of the year to water the land with mostly heavy rain. Plants and crops grow easily anywhere untended. Yet, for well over a decade, the land of potential bounty has been in the throes of spiraling prices. In most cases, prices gallop by month, even weekly. There is hardly any government effort to combat the problem. And of course, when prices go up in Nigeria, they rarely come down. In short, prices of commodities in the country are more likely to jump still higher once they go up than fall again. While this has been the situation for a long time, wages have not been rising. As a matter of fact, there has been a general freeze since the last labour strike. At the same time, some companies even slashed wages, citing the foreign exchange crunch. Stagnant wage scales in the face of steadily rising prices mean a sharp reduction in the purchasing power of the average Nigerian and a subsequent decline in the ability to feed at all, not to talk of feeding well.
Meat seller at a roadside market in Mowe, Ogun State
A tired kid hawker resting
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been severe. And the tales of starvation are grim. In the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Ikeja-Lagos, children of lower class parents are going about scavenging the left-overs of the more privileged residents. Other places frequented by these human scavengers include hospitals, schools and restaurants. For many in the city, roasted maize and sugarcane have taken the place of regular cooked meals. Those that are luckier take garri (soaked), coco-yam or cooked cassava. Black amala and pomo (cattle skin), once frowned upon by most people in the South are becoming popular. So is eba, previously a food hardly patronised by northerners. Undoubtedly, for most families, the daily meal has come down to garri, (soaked) and gulped like that without sugar or salt or prepared as eba. Nwafor Maduako, a wheel-barrow
Another at a Filling Station
pusher at the popular mile 12 market in Ketu, says he now eats once daily. His meal is akpu (pounded cassava). Akpu is a heavy food and Maduako says when he takes it in the afternoon, it is usually enough to “hold” his stomach for the rest of the day. Like Maduako, Felix Ehiweme, a driver, agonises that “by the time you don buy fuel, pay garage fees, pay school fees and levies, na small moni go remain to take do other things. If you go market, meat dear; no be say food no deh, but e deh dear.” But, they are not the only ones bemoaning their fate under the crushing weight of poverty in the country. In these harshening times, they are lucky to even eat at all. A growing number of people beg for arms. In the last couple of months, a number of women have appeared on television in various parts of the country to plead for arms. One of such people, a mother of triplets claims her husband absconded, leav-
ing the family in penury. Before the TV appearance, she had not eaten in two days. In Lagos, nursing mothers accost passers-by for as little as N10 to buy ogi (corn pap). More shocking are stories of mothers abandoning kids in market places in lieu of paying for items bought. Mothers abandoning kids in market places A roadside garri seller at OjoduBerger, mama Sumbo recalls that sometime in April, a young woman with a child came to buy N200 worth of garri. She left the kid with mama Sumbo, promising to pay after purchasing other items. One hour, two hours, three, four, five-she was nowhere to be seen. Mama Sumbo raised an alarm, “because the pickin dey cry and since ‘im mama say she dey come, I begin fear make people no come say I steal the pickin.” As people gathered,
Low profile despite rich endowment Yet, those are just a few of the millions of Nigerians whose present situation eloquently demonstrate that poverty, with all its manifestations and dimensions have been in the increase in the country. In all major parameters used for measuring poverty, Nigeria has constantly maintained an unenviable low profile despite its rich endowment in human and natural resources. In the last 53 years, the country has scooped several billion dollars from crude oil alone. But while average per capita income in most oil-producing countries of the world like Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, United Arab Emirate, Kuwait, Algeria and others stands at over $3000, Nigeria’s per capita income remains at about $250 for over a decade now. By United Nations rating, Nigeria is one of the poorest nations on earth. Also, findings by the World Bank reveal that 75 per cent out of the estimated 160 million Nigerians live below poverty line. This means that they live on less than $1 or N160 per day. Behind the grim statistics, however, acute poverty and its manifestations have continued to stare the country in the face. There is lack of basic inCO NTINUED O N PAGE 23