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By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
Photo credit:Alarmy.
Housewives, particularly Muslims, who went to the two markets in Lokoja, Kogi State, north central Nigeria on Saturday, to buy fresh tomatoes returned home disappointed.
Their disappointment stemmed from the fact that they could not find fresh tomatoes, a crucial ingredient for soup, due to an unusual scarcity in the markets.
Our correspondent visited both the International Market and the Old Market on Saturday, reporting that buyers traversed the markets without finding any tomatoes to purchase.
Some of the traders interviewed could not provide convincing reasons for the scarcity.
As a result, many buyers resorted to purchasing processed tomatoes for their soup preparation.
Some Muslim housewives who spoke with our correspondent described the situation as alarming, noting that they had never experienced such a shortage in their living memory of the two markets in Lokoja.
They expressed concern over their ability to share Sallah food with neighbors, due to the unavailability of fresh tomatoes to prepare soup for the rice.
The Rporters recalls that the situation in the two markets remained critical on Saturday, with the prices of foodstuffs and other essential commodities continuing to soar uncontrollably.
Our investigation revealed that a large ram sold for as high as N500,000, while those who could not afford such an animal opted for average-sized live chickens at N20,000, instead of the N100,000 for a ram and N5,000 for a chicken last year.
Both buyers and sellers who spoke with our correspondent attributed the excessive high cost of living in Nigeria to the removal of the fuel subsidy and its impact on transportation costs and other aspects of economic and social life.
They called on the federal government to take necessary actions to alleviate the current economic hardships in the country.
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