By Chinyere Anyanwu [email protected]
The ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest which entered its sixth day today has had some far reaching implications for the country’s food supply and pricing structure.
Prior to the kick-off of the protest billed for August 1 – 10, investigations around few markets in Lagos on July 31, revealed that consumers engaged in frenzied buying of foodstuff to stock their homes owing to fears of uncertainty about the intensity and actual duration of the protest.
Mr. Sam Osuagwu, a grains seller at Olaniyonu Market in the Orile Iganmu area of Lagos, said the protest did not substantially affect the prices and availability of foodstuff such as rice, beans, and garri except that on Wednesday, July 31, there was panic buying. Osuagwu explained that from the start of business on July 31, till the close of business for the day, he was under pressure owing to the high volume of customers trooping into his store to buy foodstuff.
He said, “since I started doing this business, I have never recorded such magnitude of sales I had that day. I usually close for business by 8.30pm but on that day (July 31), we were still selling till almost 11pm. People who used to buy a bucket of rice, beans and garri were buying as much as four buckets of each commodity.”
Osuagwu noted that though consumers were buying foodstuff extensively, the prices of the items remained the same. He, however, stated that by the first and second day of the protest, sales dwindled as people avoided the streets for fear of attack.
A consumer, Mrs. Ewa Aina, said in preparation for the protest, she had to source for money to buy a bucket each of rice, beans and garri as against her usual mode of buying the items in De Rica cups. A fresh tomatoes, onions and pepper retailer at the Olaniyonu Market, Mrs. Jane Onuh, who purchases the commodities from Mile 12 Market said since the start of the protest, there has not been any marked difference in prices of tomatoes, pepper and onions. She said as at last Saturday, three days into the protest, a big basket of tomatoes sold for N112,000, a big bag of pepper (rodo) sold for N90,000 while a bag of onions sold for between N90,000 and N95,000 at Mile 12 Market, the same prices she bought them shortly before the protest.
The #EndBadGovernance Protest is being organised by a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to rally the citizens to rise in one voice against several ills confronting the country, including bad and high cost of governance, rising cost of living, corruption, fuel subsidy removal, fuel scarcity, insecurity, high naira to dollar rate, and high electricity tarrif, among several other salient issues.