Prices of food items continue to increase nationwide despite Nigerians protesting against hardships, calling on the government to ameliorate their burden.
A new market survey by Peoples Gazette on Wednesday, showed that foodstuffs prices are increasing from past market surveys, while prices of other household items not captured in the previous survey continue to rise.
The Gazette arrived at the prices of items surveying prices in Mararaba, an Abuja satellite town in Nasarawa State, Jos in Plateau State and Ijebu in Ogun State.
A 10Kg bag of semo; flour made from maize used for making ‘swallow,’ now sells for N13, 200, as against N6, 000 for which it was sold around this time last year.
A 12kg of cooking gas sold for N7, 500 at the same time last year is now N15, 500, while 4kg of cooking gas which sold for N1200 now sells for N5,000.
In Ijebu, Ogun State, a bag of sachet water is now N620, thrice its former price. With a bag costing N620, one piece of sachet water sells for N31 in Ijebu.
Spiking prices of food predated Mr Tinubu’s government. However, Mr Tinubu’s sudden fuel subsidy removal and floating of the naira, which were lauded by experts as good policies, have seen petrol price jump from N145 to N630, shooting food prices up as the naira continue its freefall against the dollar, trading at N1,825 against a dollar on Tuesday.
On Monday, Nigerians protested over skyrocketing food prices in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, chanting “Tinubu ole.” Similar protests had been held in Osun, Niger, Kano and Lagos states, Mr Tinubu’s homestate, last week.
Over economic hardships in the country, the Nigerian Labour Congress announced a two-day nationwide protest scheduled for between February 27 and 28th.
However, the State Security Service has warned the NLC to shun its planned nationwide protest, claiming some elements were scheming to take advantage of the protest to cause a crisis and widespread violence.
Mr Tinubu, in response to public outcry on rising cost of food driven by inflation in the country, directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release about 42,000 metric tonnes of grain, including maize, millet and garri.
He also charged National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, State Security Service and the police to go after food hoarders, while the Nigerian Customs had announced plans to distribute confiscated food items to Nigeria to ameliorate hunger in the country.
