Celina Agbor is a 45-year old woman that deals on clothing materials in a popular Iyana-Oba market located at the Ojo area of Lagos State.
Agbor, who manages to fend for her family through the clothing business, nearly lost her children to hunger during the five-week lockdown clamped on Lagos, Ogun State and Abuja to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In a chat with BDSUNDAY, the mother of four with a husband who is out of a job, shared her pathetic experience.
“Few days before the lockdown started, I went to Yaba market to stock up my clothing shop. This was exactly one week after I also renewed my house rent. So, at the start of the lockdown, which caught me unawares, I had no money and no reasonable food stuff at home for my family,” she said.
According to her, “Things became so bad that my children and I barely managed to survive the first week of the lockdown after which we started begging for assistance from friends, relatives and neighbours. The situation became so terrible that I had to join a friend of mine, who is into buying and selling of food stuff. To go into the business, I had to borrow N5,000 from my co-tenant to start the food stuff business.”
Agbor said that she used to join her friends and colleagues also in the business to go to Oyinbo Market to buy the stuff that she sells in the market.
“Though, we don’t usually go to the market everyday because we always alternate it and go every two days. Going to Oyinbo those days used to be very tough because the lockdown made it very difficult for traders like us to move about even when our business was classified under the essential services,” she stated.
Narrating further, she stated that “As early as 4:00am, we would have left home to board the vehicle that usually take us to the market and we also return in group as well because moving in groups does not only bring down the transportation cost but also helps to smoothen the journey especially as regard the several harassments by law enforcement agents. I wasn’t used to such kind of business but I had to feed my children because if I don’t bring money home, there wouldn’t be any food at home to eat.”
Agbor, who stated that at the beginning, it was very tough because the market women (the union) did not allow her to put her table in the market to sell for the reason that she was not a registered member, said that she had to do the necessary things to ensure that food is available for her children.
Agbor’s experience during the five-week of lockdown was not different from what many other women, who depend on daily earnings for survival, told BDSUNDAY.
A woman, who identified herself as Comfort, who sells food stuff, said she and her colleagues used to go to Otto Market in Ebute-Meta during the lockdown, as early as 3am to buy stocks. She said that they usually chatter a vehicle at exorbitant fare, to take them to the market.
According to the woman, who is in her early 50s, but craved anonymity, “On one of the days, we were arrested by policemen at Itire Police Station, and we were detained. We were over 20 in number. We were all sent inside the cell.
“My greatest fear was that one could contract the coronavirus there. The policemen did not see the danger in what they were doing. No social distancing, no nothing; we were all lumped inside a tiny cell. We were there from that past 3am to about 10am when they moved us to Yaba, where we bailed ourselves. From that day, I decided I was not going to go to Otto Market again until the lockdown was over. So, I continued to manage the little things I had in my shop. It was a traumatic experience for all of us.”
“Come to think of it, these are all women, struggling to provide for their families at a time most of our husbands were either out of job, or at home due to the COVID-19 lockdown. We heard that government shared palliatives, but it did not get to us. It was sad that trying to fend for ourselves and our families was now viewed as a crime by the police. It made me to think about what a country we are in. That experience will remain a sad memory all the days of my life,” she further said.
On her part, a hair stylist, who identified herself as Iya Bolu, told BDSUNDAY that surviving the lockdown was not easy at all because the Lagos State Government did not allow beauty salons to open even up till this moment.
“After staying at home for the first two weeks, I was forced to find a way to survive because my three children, myself and my husband, who were virtually doing nothing, had to feed. First, I started going to people’s houses to render home service to my customers if they call me on phone to come and make their hair,” Iya Bolu stated.
According to her, “It was very difficult because going to people’s houses was a greater risk to take in terms of contracting COVID-19 because you would not know who the person you are going to make her hair has mingled with in the past but then, I had to feed my family.
“With home service, I was now able to earn money little by little to be able to feed my family. The major thing is that before going to people’s houses, I try as much as possible to wear face mask, distance myself from the next person and make it a point of duty to wash my hand immediately I finish with the customer.”
Another trader, who gave her name as Mama Ejima told BDSUNDAY that she used to go to Mile 12 Market in Lagos to buy baskets of tomatoes, which she sells wholesale to retailers in Ikotun Market. But during the lockdown, it became very difficult to go to Mile 12 everyday due to the scarcity of commercial vehicles. She resorted to calling her ‘Alhaji supplier’ to waybill the tomatoes to her.
“Depending on waybill wasn’t easy for me because one would pay money to the supplier, who would send goods of his choice to you and it takes like two days before the goods would get to you. By the time it arrives, the tomatoes would no longer be the same; that is after buying it at a very expensive amount. Before lockdown, one would go to the market, buy goods of excellent choice and come back with them. I managed to do the waybill method few times and it nearly put me in debt. That was why I was forced to stop,” said Mama Ejima.
She stated that when she was forced to stop buying from her Alhaji supplier in Mile 12 Market, she started buying smaller basket from the Mallams around and resells to customers. “That was how my family and I survived during the lockdown,” she said.
