Hardship: Christians in low-key Easter celebration

…Lament high cost of foodstuff

…Interstate transport fares up 30%

Christians in Nigeria are celebrating this year’s Easter season on a very low key, no thanks to the current economic hardship in the country that has trigged high cost of foodstuffs and soaring cost of transportation for holiday travellers.

For Christians, two seasons are very important. The first is Christmas while the second one is Easter. The two seasons are very important because of their significance to the Christian faith. Christmas represents the birth of Christ while Easter is a period they mark the death and resurrection of Christ.

Read also: Rising food prices push Nigeria’s inflation to 31.70 % in February

The two seasons are marked with fanfare among Christians, and they provide people the opportunity to hold events such as weddings, burials, birthday parties, thanksgivings and other forms of celebrations.

Before now, people fixed many of their programmes to coincide with these periods. For people who fail to travel to their villages/hometowns during Christmas, they endeavour to do so within the Easter holidays.

This year, BusinessDay Sunday discovered that the celebration is on a low-key as the rising cost of living crisis in the country robs households of their purchasing power.

Many families are finding it difficult to have a decent meal these days while those who still feed well spend well over 50 percent of their monthly earnings on feeding, leaving them no room for vacations and getaways.

Foodstuffs such as rice, beans, garri, groundnut oil, yam, pure water and proteins such as fish, chicken, meat and eggs are very expensive in the country.

Nigeria’s headline inflation accelerated to 31.70 percent in February while food inflation, which constitutes 50 percent of the inflation rate, rose to 37.92 percent in February from 35.41 percent in January.

“I don’t know how my family will celebrate and have fun this year’s Easter because foodstuffs are very expensive. I went to Oyinbo market on Friday and a kilo of meat was priced at N6,500 while a sizeable meat that I used to buy for N5,000 before was priced between N10,000 and N12,000,” said Celine Esosa, a mother of four.

She said she was confused as to what to buy because even the fish sellers were worse off in terms of pricing because they were pricing one sizable Titus fish for as much as N3,000.

Nkechi Olisa, a businesswoman told BusinessDaySunday that she went to Daleko market to buy foodstuffs to cook soup on Saturday, only for her to realise that a derica of Egusi now goes for N2,000; Ogbono goes for N7,000; a paint bucket of Okro goes for between N4,000 and N5,000.

According to her, she left the market more confused because the prices did not give her room to even breathe.

“My family has not eaten swallow for a long time because of the high cost of foodstuff especially items for making soup, including meat. I was hoping to make soup for my husband and children this Easter, but the money didn’t add up,” she decried.

Bayo Adebowale, an auto mechanic, told our correspondent that his plans to take his family on a weekend gate-away this Easter did not work out due to lack of money.

“We planned to eat out as a family, go to the beach and take up a weekend package somewhere nice for the family but looking at the money that was involved, we had to cancel because in two or three weeks to come, the school will resume with another set of tuition fees to pay,” Adebowale said.

Titilope Wahab, an accountant, said her family of five planned to travel to Abuja to visit her parents-in-law but a bus ticket to secure at least four seats and move five people to and from Abuja will cost nothing less than N360,000 on N45,000 per bus ticket.

“Travelling by road is supposed to be a cheaper alternative to flying but is no longer cheap these days since the removal of petrol subsidy that led to the hike in the pump price of petrol from N195 per litre to between N595 and N630 per litre depending on the location and dealer,” she said.

Surging food prices

The price of foodstuffs is skyrocketing daily and is presently going out of the reach of the poor. Households are now spending so much on buying foodstuffs to at least have one or two decent meals daily.

According to 24Hour Market, an online frozen foods store, a kilo of Titus fish now goes for N5,000; a kilo of Kote fish now goes for N3,500; a kilo of Orobo chicken goes for N4,500 while chicken wings go for N6,500 and a kilo of turkey wings goes for N6,500.

The price of rice, Nigeria’s stable food, has become very expensive. For instance, a 50kg bag of rice now ranges between N73,000 and N87,000; 10kg goes for as much as N19,500; 5kg goes for N9,500 while 4 litres paint bucket of beans goes for as much as N6,500.

A four-litre paint bucket of yellow garri goes for N2,500 while Ijebu garri goes for N3,500.

30% rise in transport cost pinches travellers

The high cost of interstate transportation has also spoiled happy moments for many families as Nigerians are now discouraged from embarking on Easter holiday trips outside their bases due to the biting cost of transportation.

“We paid N250,000 to secure five seats on a night luxurious bus to move my family from Lagos to Nnewi in Anambra State and it was not funny. One of my daughters is getting married this Easter and we travelled to Anambra for her traditional marriage,” said Felix Amauche, a father of three.

According to him, travelling within Nigeria these days when transport costs are high is no longer a tea party because it requires a huge sum especially when you have a large family.

The situation, Amauche said, has strained his pocket coupled with the fact that he had spent all his savings on the preparation of his daughter’s traditional marriage.

“To host people is not easy these days in the face of rising food inflation in Nigeria,” he added.

Checks by BusinessDaySunday show that the cost of transport has also gone up by 30 percent for business-class executive buses and 19 percent on smart couches popularly known as mini luxurious buses compared to the prices charged earlier in February.

A bus ticket from Lagos to Owerri or Aba now goes for between N38,000 and N39,000 on business executive class buses; a ticket on a Smart couch bus goes for N25,000 while Sienna buses cost as much as N48,000, according to information obtained from the official portal of GUO Transport Company.

Also, a bus ticket on Libra Motors from Lagos to Owerri or Aba costs as high as N39,000 and N40,000 respectively.

A bus ticket to Abuja from Lagos goes for as high as N45,000 per seat this Easter period.

Aside from travelling by road, Easter holidaymakers who intend to travel to visit families and friends are also facing high airfare from Lagos to places like Owerri with airfare that ranges between N117,000 and N158,000 while Abuja to Owerri ranges N153,000 and N158,000 on Dana Airline.