Tudun Wada market, Zamfara State
By Ifeanyichukwu Nwannah – Gusau
The rate at which prices of foodstuffs continue to escalate in the country is now attracting serious attention, while also noting that the federal government has failed to establish a well-coordinated price control agency to regulate prices of foodstuffs in the country.
An intensive investigation by Vanguard correspondent revealed that a bag of foreign rice in Zamfara state is now being sold at the price of N29,000 while the same bag is being sold at the price of N30,000 in Sokoto state.
According to a trader operating at Tudu Wada market, the market behaviour has totally changed considering the increase of foodstuffs in Zamfara state.
“It is very obvious that Zamfara state is a rural state where almost everybody in the state depends entirely on the state government for survival,” she said.
Many people interviewed by this reporter explained that the federal government should be blamed for what they described as lack of care for the people that voted President Muhammadu Buhari to power.
“It is clear that we are living in a decaying system where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer even when the federal government continue to make noise about the war against corruption in the country”
According to one trader, Alhaji Ibrahim Dangata, who operates a big shop in Gusau, the situation has become so unbearable for the common man to live in his or her own country.
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“We are therefore calling on the federal government to as a matter of necessity address the ugly development before all the citizens of this country would all die of hunger and starvation”
“This is not our agreement with President Buhari before we voted him into power in 2015”
According to him, no responsible government can stay and watch its citizens perish due to hunger and starvation, saying that Buhari’s administration has failed Nigerians woefully.
He explained that if our founding fathers who have been buried since would germinate from the grave and see the position of Nigeria they left behind, they would be full of surprises and disappointed with what is happening in the country they unitedly fought for.
Vanguard correspondent further surveyed tomato, yam, onions market where it was discovered that no one could buy them with N100, saying that the prices range from N300 before one could get these ingredients that can make a pot of soup.
Vanguard correspondent can authoritatively report that many traders have packed up their businesses due to lack of buyers, stressing that many civil servants are mostly affected by the foodstuffs price hike.
According to one civil servant, Abubakar Gusau, we have not yet enjoyed the N30,000 minimum wage in the state, saying that the state government has been making noises about the minimum wage but no action on ground.
“We need to get it right, a committee that was constituted over a year for the salary implementation and has submitted its report to the State government then what is delaying the implementation of the report” he asked.
He noted that everyone in the state including the so-called NGOs depends on the government and when the state government is not forthcoming then there is bound to be problems in the system.
