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• Lament long queues, poor handling by officials
By Vivian Onyebukwa
•Buyers at the discounted food market in Lagos
Efforts by the Lagos State government to cushion the effects of rising food prices through the establishment of a discounted food market is attracting an unprecedented number of residents, making them spend several hours in the queue to purchase basic food items.
At the intervention markets spread across the five divisions of the state, food items are sold at a 25 per cent discount. The markets became operational on March 17, 2024, and are expected to last for four Sundays between 11am and 4pm. It is a market for staple foods like rice, beans, garri, bread, egg, tomatoes, and pepper, among others.
Ounje Eko
At the various locations visited by Saturday Sun, prices of items were conspicuously displayed at the centres. A 5kg bag of rice, which sells for N7,100 in the open market, is sold at N5,300 at the discounted food markets while a 5kg bag of beans, which goes for N8,000 is N6,225. Also, 2kg of tomatoes, which sells for N4,000 is sold at N1,800.
Other food items are 1kg of atarodo (a species of pepper) which costs N2, 000 but is sold is N1,815, while a loaf of bread which is N1,000 goes for N750.
Equally, 1kg bag of rice which has a market price of N1,420 is N1,068; 1kg of beans which is N1,600 goes for N1,245; 1kg of tatashe (pepper) which costs N1,700 is sold at N1,215; 1kg of onions, instead of N600 is sold at N450; while a crate of egg which sells for N3,600 goes for N2,700 at the food market.
So far, knocks and kudos have trailed the initiative by some people at the different centres visited by Saturday Sun.
At Egbe Idimu Local Council Development Area, (LCDA) with its centre at Local Government Grammar School, a resident commended the government for the initiative. “This is part of the government’s efforts to support communities with affordable food. It shows that the Lagos State government cares for its citizens.”
The resident, who is a caterer, however, complained about the prices and process of getting the items. She expected the prices of the items to be much cheaper than what the government is offering, except for rice and egg.
Some of the residents who turned out to make purchases also complained about standing in the queue for several hours while government officials subverted the rules by allowing people they were familiar with to jump the queue.
Several people at the centre expressed their frustration over the process. They blamed the coordinators, accusing them of not living up to expectation by ensuring orderly conduct of the market.
A woman who identified herself as Iya Abidemi, observed that for people to be buying the items, was an indication that there was a difference between the prices of the goods and their real market prices.
At Igando Community Grammar School, it was the same compliant of the prices of the food items.
“Oil, chicken, yam, are what I really need. No meat and fish. I was not even aware of the exercise. It was a neighbour that told me when I came back from church service, so I decided to come,” Mrs. Iyabo Ojo stated.
Chidi Ijeoma, a resident of Gowon Estate, Egbeda, said that the reason he was at the Idimu centre was to buy tomatoes and pepper because they are expensive in his area. He equally complained of the process. “People are jumping the queue. I came since 11am, and I must be able to buy something because I can’t spend all the time for nothing,” he said.
“This is not what I really expected. I thought I would meet a proper market situation where people could just come in and buy what they want from the traders. They were giving numbers to people initially when it started, but someone came and ordered them to stop. That was when the confusion started. They now started bringing people from the sides,” he said.
At African Church Primary School, College Road, Ifako Ijaiye, Tope Adeyemi said she wanted to buy egg and beans, but could not wait due to the large number of people she met at the centre. “I would rather go to the market and buy than spending the whole day for nothing,” Adeyemi declared. Saturday Sun gathered that some people arrived the venue as early as 6am.
But while some were busy complaining about the process, others employed an easy way to get their items.
“They give you voucher for each of the items. You pay with only POS. So to make it easy for you, you can find someone who is not buying some of the items you probably need. You pay into the person’s account to assist you to buy, when the person is getting closer to be attended to,” one Iya Sikira explained, even as she complained of how time-consuming the process was.
A visit to Ebenezer/Egbeda Primary School, Egbeda, also showed that there was a large turnout of people. Tope Shokunbi who said she got the information from her estate’s social media platform, commended the government for the initiative. He said, “This is a form of palliative by the government. It is one of the dividends of democracy.”
