VIDEO: ‘Abeg Make Buhari Come Back’ – FCT Traders Wish as Food, Transportation Prices’ Skyrocket
A cross section of traders at the Utako Market and some residents of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, are longing for President Muhammadu Buhari to return as Nigeria’s leader, as their economic hardships worsen.
Economic Confidential reports that the subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29, and the recent hike in the pump price of petrol, by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, have affected citizens negatively.
Alongside the sharp increase in the prices of foodstuffs and other commodities, is the soaring fare of transportation in Abuja, and across the country.
Recalled that the NNPCL, penultimate Tuesday, announced the increment in the price of fuel to N617 per litre, from N537. But amid the prevailing economic turmoil affecting citizens in diverse ways, buyers and sellers at the Utako Market, lamented that the inflation caused by the fuel hike is having an unprecedented impact on their finances, while speaking to ECONOMY ON THE STREET, recently.
“Abeg, I pray make Buhari come back. The devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know. In fact, the suffer I don suffer for only three weeks now is like I don suffer for five years. I am telling you the truth, no be joke O. Sometimes, I wonder if I can survive if this should last another two to three months,” one of the traders, who sells beef, lamented.
Another FCT resident, who is a civil servant, told our reporter that he is not fond of taking a lift while commuting between his home and office, but was forced to take a free ride, for the first time, in an open Hilux, about a week ago.
“I have been managing my transport since this fuel subsidy was removed, and petrol price also increased. In fact, I have never entered an Hilux pick-up in my life.
“But last week, I entered a Hilux car just because I wanted to manage the transport with me, and in the process I was beaten by heavy rainfall while going home, inside the back of the Hilux vehicle,” he said.
A housewife who asked not to be named, said the hike in petrol price forced her and her children to have a ‘family meeting’ over food rationing, since the children are now on break from school, and will likely be consuming a lot of food.
“I have talked to my children to know how they will be eating at this time. As it is now, it is only God that can intervene. But we are calling on the government to come to the aid of the sufferings of Nigerians,” she told ECONOMY ON THE STREET, in an emotion-laden tone.
As for a grocery trader, the increment in petrol cost has severely affected the prices of many commodities at Utako Market. “Like now, Maggi, before is N600. But it is now about N950 and N1,000. So, I want to beg the government to do something,” said the trader, who appears to be in her 40s.
