Nigerians groan over border closure

The day was Monday. Bisi Adams, mother of four, had just prepared her children for the new school week. While the young ones were excited about seeing their friends after the weekend, their mother on the other hand was consumed by the thoughts running through her mind. There was no breakfast for her kids. No food in the house. She had planned drink Garri (cassava flakes) and salt once the children were away, but first, she needed to get home-made meals for her children. After a while, Bisi and the kids step out to a canteen also known as ‘Buka’ to get food on credit which has become her usual practice. But on this day, her usual benefactor owner of the canteen isn’t so welcoming. “Better leave this place now with those malnourished kids”, the fat Mama Put exclaims. “As if you don’t know what is happening to Nigeria now.”

Smarting from the insult, Bisi stands with tears streaming down her face. The fat, canteen owner continues to rant: “Rice has become as expensive as gold since they close the border. The price of one bag don go from N12, 000 to N25, 000. We no dey even get am buy. And yet you expect me to sell to you on credit, for this Monday morning? Abeg, no make me angry, biko!”

The closure of the Nigeria-Benin border on August 19, 2019 has had a rippling effect across the country, with the magnitude of the consequences most acute in Lagos State.

Retired Col. Hameed Ali, the Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), had explained the imperative of the border shutdown as necessary to stem the flow of arms and ammunition into the country and to curtail smuggling and human trafficking, and the measure has been lauded by prominent people in the society. Nonetheless, there is a flip side to the story. The masses are lamenting the food scarcity rate in the country.

OpenLife spoke with some Nigerians on the Issue. For Mrs Mary Ukwu, a canteen owner at Ejigbo, the decision by the federal government favours no other than the elites. She opined that the Next Level concept of the President Buhari campaign is now unveiled as the next level of suffering as Nigerians have been made to suffer the brunt of economic crises since the inception of the government.

She said, “I used to buy a bag of rice at N18, 000 but now that a bag is N25,000, I buy with De Rica tin and a tin is now N350. There is literally no gain in this business anymore, we are just doing it to survive. Before now, some people would buy a food worth N350 for their children and bring N200 and I would sell it like that. Now, that is no longer possible. I used to sell chicken before, now, I don’t go near it. I sell only beef and fish.”

Mrs Ukwu revealed that a secondary school nearby her place, the students now take Garri and Sugar during break periods because they couldn’t afford rice. She also stated that parents now make Amala (meal prepared from Yam flour) and take it to their kids in school. “Just imagine!” she exclaimed.

She, however, called on the government to have mercy on the masses and reverse the decision because the prices of other commodities have increased tremendously. “The quantity of onions, pepper and other spices that I use in cooking the measured rice is no longer the same price. I now spend double of that.”

Mrs. Anita John Atogbo, a dealer in wholesale Italian rice at Gloryland Estate, Ajar, also lampooned at the government.  Closing the border is akin to closing her business. She revealed that prior to the border closure, she buys a bag of rice at N12,500 or N14,000 as the case may be and she sells both wholesale and retail but now she buys at N21,500 and sells at a price that doesn’t bring enough profit for her. The exorbitant price apart, there is scarcity of rice in the country.

“This issue of border closure has done more harm than good to the economy because it has brought about inflation. The demand of rice as a commodity is higher than the supply and this leads to an increase in the price margin. Now that the border is closed, where do they want us to get rice?” She said.

Atogbo averred that  home-grown rice and the foreign variety are expensive and their scarcity have pushed up the prices of other ingredients especially groundnut oil. She lamented that this has affected her profit margin adversely. “When we buy at a high rate, we add just little money to it so people can buy”, she said. She further stated that the Nigerian rice is very hard and doesn’t get cooked on time.

Mama Ibeji, a turkey dealer in Ikorodu market lamented on the slow sales of chicken and turkey she has been experiencing of recent. She stated that people find it very difficult to buy frozen foods since the closure of the border. Iya Ibeji revealed that she used to buy a carton of chicken at N8,500 but now it is N14,000; also, Turkey which used to be at N11,500 is now sold for N15,000.

“A kilo of chicken was N900; N1000 before the border closure but it is now N1500. They want us to eat Nigerian chicken but it is bad, once it gets on the fire, it becomes annoyingly soft and yet it is still expensive.” She, however, believes that if the Nigerian chicken is of great quality, people would buy regardless of the cost.

Madam  Ibeji further said that the hike in the cost of chicken and turkey has started affecting the cost of fish gradually. She believes that things might get worse because as people keep demanding for fish, the demand would be greater than the supply and the cost price would increase. “They have added to the cost price of Mackerel fish and some others.” Nnaemeka Ossai, a cosmetics shop owner in Kuto, Abeokuta,  also confirmed the pernicious effect of the border shutdown on the sales of cream and antiseptic liquids. The price of body lotions, he affirmed, has increased by N100 to N500 and this discourages some customers who couldn’t link the border closure to the increase in price.

He said, “Some people come wanting to buy at the old price, but when we tell them that we cannot sell at such amount, they go back. What can we do when we no longer buy at the usual price? White Secret used to be N900, now it is N1200. St. Ives antiseptic liquid, sold at N160 before is now N250.”

                   Consumers lament

Mrs. Damilola Idera, a mother and civil servant in Ogun State civil service who lives in Eleweran shared her sad experience with OpenLife. She stated that a derica of rice which used to be N220 has skyrocketed to N400. The mother of four who used to buy bags of foreign rice popularly known as “Aroso” has now settled for smaller measurements of “Agric” rice due to the unavailability of the rice she prefers.

She opined that the Nigerian turkey and chicken asides being expensive is also not very good. “We are being encouraged to consume made-in-Nigeria things but the quality is something else. Once the chicken gets into water, it stays afloat like bread on water. A chicken dealer once advised me against boiling or frying the chicken. She said I should wash, season it and boil alongside the soup or stew, in that way, it doesn’t get unnecessarily soft and it retains its taste.”

She called on the government to look into the plights of Nigerian masses who bear the brunt of government decisions as everything has become expensive. “Pepper is also expensive. Are they not feeling the heat? They said the border would be closed for 28 days, isn’t it complete yet?” she queried. Meanwhile, Jigawa governor Alhaji Muhammadu has been upbeat about the closure of border, a development he sees as an enabler for Jigawa to emerge leading rice producer in Nigeria.

Recently, he  signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state government and the government of Huanan Province of China, under which modern farming implements and tools factories would be established for the production of farming implements and tools locally. Speaking while signing the MoU governor Muhammadu Badaru Abubakar said the company has procured solar power to the state for gravity irrigation which will cover between 70 to 100,000 hectares for rice production.

The governor  explained that: “the relationship would improve agriculture more than ever before and would be made the state a leading state in rice production not only in Nigeria but in the whole of Africa.”

According to him, ‘In order to improve farming activities in the State, the government is ready to bring solar power to Jigawa for gravity irrigation which will cover between 70 to 100,000 hectares.He stated further that: “we hope the state is going to be one of the leading producers of quality rice not only in Nigeria but in Africa.”

The governor emphasised that the importation of rice must be discouraged in the country. Alhaji Abubakar also discussed that: “As a leading producer of quality Sesame in Africa, the state will soon start exportation of the product (Sesame) to the tune of 30,000 tons to Huanan Province where oil will be extracted out of it.”

He further explained that his administration is using the research Institute of Huanan Province to improve, upgrade the yield and quality of rice produced in the state so that it will be the leading rice producer in the next five years. Earlier, the governor of Huanan Province, Mr Oufang Huang said they were in a return visit to Jigawa state in order to have a strong partnership on agricultural production as requested earlier by Governor Badaru when he paid a similar visit to the Province in China.