Fighting Inflation Which Has Hit A 16 Year High At The Domestic Level, Reaching 33.95% Is Unsustainable In The Economy
The Oasis Reporters
June 24, 2024
By Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
The impact of inflation on Nigerian homes is jarring and what is happening in the lives of people in very many tangible ways has hit a worrying momentum.
When Shehu Jibrin, the Chairman of Mile 12 International Market Lagos, blamed the insufficient supply of tomatoes to the south on the insecurity being experienced in the north and the infestation of Tomato leaf miner on the crop for the more than 500 percent price hike of tomatoes and pepper in Nigeria, he was telling a true story. But it was actually a half of the truth.
The full reality is well known to those who have lived in the north for several years like Ojay who was there for decades.
The insecurity is there. Disease infestation is also there. But most significantly, the months of April, May, June and July are well known for the acute scarcity of tomatoes and peppers. That is an accident of geography and the environment.
But government initiative is also lacking. Research institutes have not come up with grand strategies to overcome this.
Ojay, a southerner who had lived in the north for decades relocated to the South and after a few years, knew exactly what to do in other to counteract this phenomenon.
Currently, just five seeds of fresh pepper cost five hundred naira in the market. About five seeds of tomatoes is about one thousand naira or more. The salary has seen no increase and inflation is making nonsense of household budgets.
Yet in his apartment is an abandoned heap of sand and there is water.
Easy does it.
So he and his wife planted some pumpkin seeds on it. Then some pepper.
At the back of his almost all cemented floor, he grew some cucumber seeds as well. Including some okra seeds.
By May, he could make little harvests everyday of fresh pepper, pumpkin leaves, okra and cucumber.
So soup is cooked. With a popular online video making the rounds on social media, he and his wife learned how cucumber fruits are converted to stand-in as tomatoes and the stew is cooked.
That way, he and his wife reduce their household budget. The idea is helping the fiscal policies of his domestic economy.
But that is besides the point.
The government should be encouraged to show greater commitment towards solving the security problems especially in the north. The bandits that are killing farmers can be overwhelmed kinetically using drones and precise intelligence.
On the non kinetic level, the fertile land in the north needs sufficient water. While constructing more dams is a grand idea, let there be watering spots with boreholes sunk in several locations to act as watering points for livestock as well as the planting and growth of nourishing grass for feeding livestock with.
At the same time, let a flourishing refrigerator-vans that can transport frozen meat to the south be encouraged. The South does not have enough land like the north, and pushing in millions of cows into the crowded south is certainly a recipe for disaster.
