By Paul Ukpabio
"It’s a Christmas like no other in the city of Abuja this
year 2016," lamented Abdul Gabar, as the recession bit harder by the day. "The streets and roads were
devoid of Christmas lights and decorations like in previous years." And while
some homes have tried to keep the tradition of Christmas decoration display
going, it is obvious according to traders of fireworks and Xmas decorations
that, it’s only the upper class that had had time and money for such luxury
this year end.
Except for the lighter traffic on the roads and the
harmattan weather that are characteristics of Abuja at Xmas period, the yuletide
season, is devoid of its usual excitement. And the
lack luster of celebration is openly attributed to the on-going recession by
the residence.
Though some corporate organizations like banks and other prosperous
organizations have had the luxury of Xmas decorations in their offices, a new generation
bank manager at Utako confessed to this reporter, that his bank branch had to
fall back on the Christmas tree and other Xmas decorations of last year’s celebration,
for this year. He commended the wisdom of the staff who kept the items safe in
the bank store, to be used this year. “We just had to dust them and use. The
white Christmas tree was still looking new.”
At the more urbane part of Abuja, the elite shopping malls
and homes of a few visited affluent people still had semblances of Christmas celebration.
Nevertheless, though affluent in status, everyone had a word or two for the
biting recession. While shoppers were seen at the popular upper class shopping
centres like Ceddi Plaza and Shoprite, picking items, a few staff spoken to at
Ceddi Plaza, admitted that the crowd, definitely has reduced this year.
At the popular Garki market in Garki 2, shoppers besieged
the market for last minute shopping during the Christmas week and days after. But according
to Madam Stella Ukaegbu, who sells fireworks and Christmas gift items at the
market, the shoppers were not buying fireworks or Christmas decorations, they
are more particular about buying food! “It’s a bad market for us this year. It
is worse than last year. People are not buying fireworks, even the children are
not buying! The market for decoration has been poor this year. Though sales picked on Christmas eve. That is why we
traders did not even order for as much fireworks as we usually order for from
our suppliers. As you can see, we didn’t stock much too. Now I am praying that I
can even sell off these few that I was able to stock. Go around the market you
will notice that only a few of us are selling it this year.
On a tour of some of the new generation banks around the
Central area of Abuja, one could notice the sights of hampers being ferried out
of the banking hall every now and then, few days before Christmas representing the happy signs of the
season, but the bank workers growl and complain of the recession and inflation when
spoken to. “It’s a hard time for families now,” replied Aliyu, “I have a family
of four; presently my mother is in my house with my wife and children. So also
are my two sisters with their children, they are presently in my house for the
coming holidays. They have come because they know that I am a banker, that at
least there will be food in my house. My two sisters’ husbands are unemployed,
my younger brother has been retrenched from work this year, my two sisters are
unemployed and they have families. So everyone is on me now. Tell me, how do we enjoy the holidays, with such financial burden and pressure on us: May
Allah help us.”
Perhaps, the only sign that reminds one that Christmas took place in
Abuja, is the carols that are still being played all around the open markets in Garki,
Wuse, Area one, Maraba and the Model market, perhaps in a bid to remind and woo
prospective 'last minute' shoppers that the season of celebration is still on.
“But how are we to celebrate?” Asked Hajia Musa Aliu, a
civil servant who came to the Model market with her young son and daughter, to have
a good outing and also shop for the holiday. “There is little or no
money in the system and inflation is staring us in the face. Palm oil for
instance has gone up by over 200%, so also groundnut oil. A keg of 5 litres of
palmoil which at a time used to sell for N1,200 is now selling for N4500 while
groundnut oil is now N4000. So where is the celebration? She asked again.
The chicken and turkey section of Garki market when visited
seemed like an area only the very daring could approach with confidence! The
healthy looking birds were very much inviting, but the purchasing power spoke
differently. Here, Mallam Aminu a major player in the market, told this reporter that for the
chickens, the price is N2000 for the big ones while the small ones are N1500. As
for the turkeys, to take home a turkey for the New Year celebration meal, means parting with N19,500.
While there is abundance of tomatoes and pepper at all the
markets visited, Ogbonna who sells grains at Garki market says, “people are not
buying things. There is no money. We have brought down the price of a bag of
rice from N20,000 to N18, 500, still people are not buying, instead they are
buying in smaller re-wrapped bags. People don’t have money to buy foodstuffs in
large quantities as it used to be in previous years.” However, as against the imported rice, the made in Nigeria rice flooded the market. This according to some lucky workers at a few establishments, were shared among workers at some lucky organizations.
The worse hit by the recession and inflation, seems to be
the civil servants as those spoken to, complained of delays in salary payment and
salaries not being able to meet up with prices of consumer items that have kept
spiraling up.
“But other businesses have also been affected,” says Ibrahim
who has been driving a taxi in Abuja for over seven years. He simply declared, “I
have never seen a year like this. I am leaving this town this weekend because
the town will more or less close down this weekend. There is no money in people’
hands. Abuja is tough now, no free money, though I will return here in late January
or February when things pick up again.” Ibrahim complained that coupled with
the bad business for taxi drivers, more and more people have joined the business
as the white collar jobs in the city has kept on reducing.
Another taxi driver Issa Mohammed insist that if his brother
who is a top government official in Abuja does not give him money to start a
business soon, he might have to return to Kaduna, to his family and to farming,
at least to sustain himself and his family.
However, the transporters, those who ply interstate, have been having a boom since the last few days to Christmas and now a day to the New Year. According to Simeon Nwosu, a
manager of a popular transport company in Utako area of Abuja, “business has
been dull all these past months, but we thank God for the Christmas season. Though
people did not start traveling early for Christmas, it is still a good business
now for us as more and more people are traveling by the day.”
A bus trip from Abuja to Lagos which hitherto used to cost
N5,500, is now officially going for N12,000 and N15,000 for the Sienna buses. But
the truth is that, it is not available. The buses have been booked ahead by the
residents, who had long planned for the journeys back home to their families in
different parts of the country mostly the east, Lagos and Ibadan.
According to Simeon, “The buses have been booked ahead, and
as you can see, we have passengers who sleep at the parks, waiting to board a
bus the next day. And each of the popular transport companies have fewer buses
to ply the roads on long journeys these days. The spiral effect is that the
cost of traveling to farther distances like the east and Lagos, have been
hijacked by the forces of demand and supply which has taken over the market. I won’t
be surprised if we are forced to further increase the fares.
Simeon is happy that his company buses get filled up early. “We
also thank God for the problems that the airlines are facing right now. Most of
the people, who depended on flights out of Abuja, have been coming here in the
last couple of days. It’s just that it is painful that business have been bad
during the year, and due to the skyrocketing forex, we were not able to repair
or refurbish most of our out of the road vehicles. We could not afford spare
parts to repair our problem vehicles, which would have come handy now. So it is
still a sad story for us even though we have good business now.
No comments:
Post a Comment