Amidst hunger and skyrocketing prices of food items and other essential commodities in the country, some Nigerians, in recent times, have resorted to breaking the law in a desperate move to ameliorate the widespread economic hardship.
Since the removal of fuel subsidy in the country by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the price of fuel has gone up, leading to astronomical increase in costs of transportation and soaring prices of food items and other goods and services.
The situation, in addition to exacerbating hunger among poor Nigerians, has also led to the distortion of economic activities in the country, forcing many businesses to downsize their operations.
As the economic situation persists, some Nigerians took to the streets to protest the high cost of living while others, who didn’t consider protest as an option resorted to force, hijacking trucks loaded with food items and looting warehouses.
- Hoodlums break into govt warehouse in Abuja, steal food items
- Hoodlums loot truckload of spaghetti in Zaria
Last month, some suspected hoodlums hijacked trailers loaded with food items in the Suleja area of Niger State, burning tyres and blocking the roads before soldiers intervened.
Barely a week later, a BUA truck loaded with spaghetti was attacked by hoodlums at Dogarawa axis of Zaria-Kano expressway.
A trader who witnessed the incident said the thugs carted away cartons of spaghetti from the truck after the driver parked by the roadside to observe his prayer.
On Friday, February 23, some hoodlums attempted to break into the popular Yankalli Market in Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, to steal food items.
However, with the intervention of security operatives, including soldiers, police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, who took over the market, the situation was foiled.
On Sunday, March 3, some hoodlums broke into a warehouse in Gwagwa town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and carted away food items.
A resident of the area who spoke to Daily Trust, Jaafar Aminu, said the operation lasted two hours with people trooping from neighbouring Jiwa and Karmo towns to join in the loot.
As this ugly trend went on, hardship protests spread to a correctional centre in Plateau State. On Friday, March 1, inmates at a correctional centre in Jos, the state capital, converged on the prison yard to protest reduction in their food ration.
The Comptroller of the Jos Correctional Centre, Raphael Ibinuhi, who confirmed the protest by the inmates, said it was in connection with the hike in prices of essential commodities.
“The problem has to do with the high cost of goods in the market. The contractor in charge of the foods said they are being forced by the price of food items to reduce the size of the plate of foods,” he said.
Meanwhile, the African Development Bank (AfDB), in its macroeconomic performance and outlook for 2024, foretold a worse scenario, saying Nigeria risked social unrest owing to the soaring prices of fuel and other essential commodities.
Act promptly, expert urges govt
Some experts, who spoke to Daily Trust, have called on the government to act promptly to ease the hardship being experienced in the country.
Professor Bala Sulaiman Dalhat of the Department of Accounting and Finance Technology, Abubakar Tafawa University, Bauchi, urged the government to provide succour to the poor, warning that if the poor became poorer, the government would suffer the consequences.
He said, “The government needs to act promptly to bulwark revolts from the masses. David Ricardo, a British political economist and politician, made a statement in the 18th century which is reflecting in today’s situation. His assertion is: capitalism is a very good policy, and in capitalism, there’s nothing bad for the rich to get richer only if the poor will be allowed to remain poor but not poorer. By allowing the poor to get poorer you’re creating a serious problem.
“Look at our situation today, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. When the poor people are allowed to go poorer, they’ll be frustrated and may revolt and begin to take actions into their own hands. A lot of people are committing crimes not because they want to be criminals but circumstances have made them to behave in that direction.
“So, today as we’ve seen, people are breaking warehouses because some few individuals have acquired all that was produced by the peasant farmers and stored them at the warehouses not for the purpose of feeding industries but for the purpose of maximising their gains when they create artificial scarcity, and by creating artificial scarcity, definitely the law of demand and supply will automatically apply, meaning the prices will go up.
“In today’s Nigeria, the people’s take home can no longer take them home. I’m a Professor but I’m telling you that my salary can’t last me two weeks. I just have to manage and use what is available. But it’s not easy for everybody to adjust to the consumption.
“If you get a permanent secretary working with the state government, he’s not satisfied with his total income. So what then do you think of an officer who’s on grade level three or five earning less than N100,000 per month? Look at the inflation rate, moving at a galloping pace not even a hyperinflation.
“The government said it would distribute 42,000 metric tons free of charge, but Nigerians have not seen anything yet. At this critical moment, you cannot make promise and keep it for five weeks without any action. If the grains were available, they’d have been brought out by now. The scarcity is continuing. The prices of fertilizer and other farm inputs are also not supportive. Masses in some states cannot even go to the farm and produce because of the fear of being kidnapped or attacked.
“The insecurity in the country has made a lot of northern Nigerian states that produce these commodities to be inactive because of the fear of the unknown. If care is not taken, by the time the masses realise their own value and the kind of maltreatment the rulers are doing to them, we’re going to have serious problems.
“Although our culture, religion and tradition are regulating us but you know a hungry man is an angry man, and so when people can’t find means of survival, they’ll create one, and that may be through hijacking trucks of food items and looting of warehouses as was recently witnessed in the country.”
On what should be done to address the challenges, Prof Dalhat advised the government to be proactive.
“Although it’s late, it’s not too late; something can be done. If the grains are not available in the government silos, let them relax the closure of borders so that temporarily food will come even if it is for two weeks or so to neutralise the prices at the market.
“The government also needs to create an enabling environment for producers to produce so that the burden of employment should not rest on the government alone. Those with jobs should hold onto their jobs, manage their resources and forget about luxuries,” he added.
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