Combined effects of bad governance in the country, South-East region inclusive; the activities of shylock commodity union leaders and the senseless frequent IPOB sit-at-home have brought severe economic hardship on the residents of the region.
Prices of goods in the markets are astronomically increasing daily. Many families are no longer able to provide a meal a day let alone the mandatory three square meals.
The weekly Monday monstrous sit-at-home order by IPOB which has obviously gone out of their control, has further impoverished artisans who live on daily labour. Many families can no longer send their children to school as they can no longer afford school fees and other expenses. The situation is worsening.
The people are simply suffering and smiling, in the words of late Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
Among other factors that influence the increase in prices of commodities, according to the people, include the activities of shylock commodity union leaders that push the prices of goods up even in the face of rising poverty among the people.
The people also blame the deplorable condition of roads, multiple taxation and ripple effects of killer herdsmen as major reasons prices of commodities, especially food stuffs and farm produce, are skyrocketing.
Also, they lay the blame on high cost of petroleum products and the inability of governments at all levels, through established agencies, to regulate prices of goods, as was the case in the past.
The absence of agencies as price control boards, offers the traders and their unions the latitude to manipulate prices as they wish. Equally, the residents blame frequent IPOB sit-at-home order which they say has forced some merchants from other parts of the country to stop the supply of commodities that are produced in their areas, particularly the Northern part of the country.
They noted that some of them have been unfortunate to fall victim to the hoodlums who were forcefully enforcing the controversial sit-at-home order.
Many of them have since diverted their business operations elsewhere, which is a big loss not only to the traders but the artisans who load and off-load the goods when they arrive.
Aba, for instance, is known for bringing and opening containers of imported goods on Mondays. But today, because of the sit-at-home order, the people no longer come to Aba, they now go to Port Harcourt, Uyo and Calabar to open their containers.
They are also leaving South-East and moving out to Lagos. This is a huge loss to the region.Some of these unions wield so much power and oftentimes take laws into their own hands and indulge in all manner of activities.
For example, on a regular basis, truck drivers in Anambra State block the major roads leading into the state to protest the imposition of taxes, and alleged intimidation by the agents of the state government.
Anytime the blockage takes place, movement becomes difficult and businesses are crippled. No goods or foodstuffs enter the state from outside. Residents of the state wonder why the truck drivers’ union should be so powerful to be inflicting hardship on the people on a regular basis.
The drivers are usually influenced by external forces that use their union to cause disaffection among the people, thereby introducing some level of politics into mere transportation of goods and services from one point to the other.
Even among the truck drivers, several unions exist.
They include Animo Tipper Drivers’ Association of Nigeria, God’s Own Tipper Owners, Drivers’ Association, and Local Government Tipper Workers Association and drivers.
There are also Minibus Drivers Union, Keke Drivers Union, Secondhand Clothes Union, Vegetable Sellers Union, and many others.
These unions, which claim that agents of government charge them various fees, also transfer such fees to those who patronise them. For instance, some of the drivers who spoke to South-East Voice said tax on every truck has increased from N200 daily to N1,400 in the last five years.
“As they increase the tax, we increase how much we charge our customers,” Mr Agbasi Nwokocha, one of the drivers said.
The increase in taxes of transporters, including the truck drivers, correspondingly affects other services.
Any day the blockage takes place, traffic gridlock becomes the order of the day and the people suffer. If there is no truck drivers’ union, the problem would not arise and people would be going about their businesses peacefully.
If the truck drivers’ activities influence the upward rise in prices of goods and services, the market unions scattered in the various markets across the South-East region ensure that prices of goods and services are never stable.
Once there is any increase in the cost of transportation, it is transferred to the consumers of goods and services.
Mrs. Angela Onyeacho who sells fruits at the Government House market, Awka, said there is no way they could be in business if they do not increase the prices of their goods as the cost of transportation increases.
She said: “We go to the hinterland to buy these goods and transportation costs so much and that is what determines the price of the goods we sell. Some people think we just sit down in our unions to fix prices. That is not true. The prices are determined by the cost at which it lands in the markets.”
According to her, the way to solve the problem is to reduce the pump price of fuel which, she added, affects every commodity in the country.
Residents of Umuahia, the Abia State capital blamed the deplorable condition of roads, multiple taxation and ripple effects of killer herdsmen as major reasons prices of commodities especially foodstuffs and farm produce are skyrocketing in the market.
Although some of the respondents agreed that the greedy attitude of market unions also accounts for the rise in the prices of commodities, they maintain that the major causative factors come from outside union activities.
Mr. Chibueze Nwankwo, a pensioner who came to shop at the popular Isi-Gate market, told our correspondent that high cost of transportation is the major reason prices of commodities are getting out of control.
He argued that a situation where traders pay through their nose to transport their wares from the point of purchase to the market, they would have no option than to push over the cost to final consumers.
The retiree also blamed the sad development on the activities and the preponderance of revenue collectors and multiple security checkpoints on the roads that do nothing but engage in massive extortion from people.
He said that vehicles transporting foodstuffs pay all manner of levies to uncountable taskforce teams and revenue collectors especially on the roads leading from North to Southern Nigeria.
Mr Nwankwo also apportioned part of the blame to corrupt government officials who he accused of collecting kickbacks from market union executives who are usually imposed by them to help protect their interests in different markets.
He said that the exploitation of hapless consumers by market unions persists because of absence of active and responsive government regulatory agencies unlike other countries in Africa. The senior citizen posited that Nigerian’s foundation is so faulty that it requires massive re-orientation by the National Orientation Agency, NOA, for the country to get back on track.
“Our value system is not helping matters at all. We need serious re-orientation for things to begin to work well again. Nigeria needs immediate re-jigging because the foundation has gone so bad.”
Mrs Martha Akwarandu agreed with him that the high cost of transportation plus the deplorable condition of most roads in the South-East are the reason prices of commodities are soaring in the region.
She, however, stated that the get-rich-quick tendencies of some market unions is another reason they jerk up prices. She called for the disbandment of many market unions which according to her, are exploitative and only exist to fleece hapless consumers.
Another respondent who preferred not to be mentioned, said the high cost of commodities especially farm produce, was the ripple effect of the rampaging activities of the killer Fulani herdsmen who displaced some agrarian communities in the country.
He appealed to government to sincerely tackle the menace of Fulani herdsmen otherwise prices of farm produce would keep skyrocketing, which will affect the prices of other commodities.
He also advocated the declaration of state of emergency on both federal and state roads in the South-East with action plan for their total rehabilitation.
A civil servant in Imo State, Clement Nwawuba lamented that he spends 80 per cent of his monthly salary on feeding his family due to high cost of foodstuffs in the market.
Nwawuba said the situation most times appear very frustrating, especially for low and middle-income earners.
He lamented that prices of goods keep increasing almost on a daily basis, even without any justification. Nwawuba, who believes it is difficult for government to regulate prices, appealed to traders to be considerate in increasing prices of goods.
According to him, the essence of union should be to stand for one another, especially in times of injustice and for welfare, and not to exploit citizens.
“The situation has become terrible. You won’t believe that I spend about 80 per cent of my monthly salary on foodstuffs. It is almost frustrating, especially for low and middle income earners. How can you spend all you worked for, on just feeding, and it is not as if you are being extravagant in spending?
“I think the essence of union should be for the welfare of members and to fight injustice, and not to exploit members of the public. I don’t think government can actually do anything about it. I can only appeal to traders to be considerate in increasing their prices in order to save us,” he submitted.
In his contribution, a lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, TFS, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Jonathan Chidi Eze, urged the masses to rise through peaceful protests against arbitrary increase in prices of products by trade unions in markets.
The don who said that there should be government regulatory agencies to check the activities of the unions, bemoaned the lack of willpower on the part of government or complicity of corrupt government agents in the unjustified hiking of prices of products by trade unions.
However, he said that trade unions should inform the public when certain products are in season and at low prices so they can buy and store and resell when they are off-season This helps to make them available all year round.
“Every phenomenon has positive and negative sides. Trade unions should give us information and educate the people on stocking of goods and reselling them for a profit. It is not bad for the economy because at a certain point in time, at a certain season, you would discover that certain goods are sold at very low prices.
“Those who are privileged to have such information can buy at that time and stock, thereby making the products available offseason. This is the positive side of the trade unions.
“But then, when they become inordinately ambitious, they may exclude the people and make it difficult for the masses to know when prices of products come down. They may regulate prices so much that it becomes difficult to know the difference between season and off-season for some goods.
“The problem is that there is no proper government regulatory agency to see that the activities of trade unions conform to the provisions of the law. The agencies do not seem to do much to help the citizenry,” he explained.
While regretting the vacuum created by government in regulating prices of products in the markets, he queried: “Do we really have governments in Nigeria? Which government? Is it the federal, state or local government? Until the masses rise up to say no, things would continue to go wrong.“Advising governments to stop hiking of prices of products by trade unions is just like advising criminals to stop criminality.
“It would not work, therefore, I am advising the masses to rise up and stop the ongoing exploitations. If peaceful change becomes impossible, violent change will become inevitable. It is in the hands of the masses to change things, not governments. We don’t really have governments in Nigeria,” he said.
The National Chairman of the Perishable Goods Dealers Association, Mr. Okezie Okeke, has absolved his members of any blame and urged Nigerians to shift their blame for the hike in prices of goods to extortion by middlemen and security agencies who mount checkpoints on highways across the federation.
Okeke stated that commodity unions make goods available to all parts of the country at affordable prices, but are frustrated by the activities of the middlemen and security agencies.
He dismissed reports that commodity unions change the prices of goods impromptu to rip off and inflict hardship on customers.
In his words: “People should thank the commodity unions for making goods available to all parts of the federation and even beyond the borders.”
Without commodity unions, certain goods will not be available in some parts of the country.
“But it is unfortunate that people now blame the unions for the high cost of goods in the market. This is unfair. They should rather blame the middlemen and security agencies like the Army and Police who mount checkpoints and collect huge amounts of money from us before they allow us pass with our goods. We spend too much money to bring our goods to the markets.
“Most of us spend time on the roads conveying goods at great risks to our lives. We travel as far as Kaduna State to bring our goods. You settle middlemen at the places we buy these goods. From Kogi state, you meet checkpoints manned by soldiers and policemen who charge exorbitant fees before they allow us pass the checkpoints.
“The real problem starts when you get to the South-East where there are too many checkpoints charging us extremely. And when you add the money we pay at these checkpoints, you will see that most times, we find it difficult to break even and be in business.
“There are no fixed charges at the checkpoints; they charge you any amount that pleases them. You either comply or risk having your vehicle delayed. And we add all these charges by middlemen and security agencies to the prices of goods to make some profit and sustain our businesses”.
Some residents of Owerri heaped the blame on the doors of the government for lack of seriousness in the area of control of food prices allowing market union leaders to have filed days in the ways they manipulate food prices of foodstuffs and other goods.
They also expressed worry that some of the agencies created by the government regarding the control of prices of food items in the market were also collaborating with these market unions’ leaders to even hike the prices.
A resident at Ikenegbu, Owerri metropolis, Chief Jude Ijezie, said that the problem that of government. “The problem is with government. The Imo state government must come out boldly to end these increase in prices of food items.
“The government must show that it is serious about the welfare of the people that they are governing, it is not about paying lip services. The solution is that we need a bold and courageous government in Imo state”.
Also speaking, a shop owner, along Douglas road, Henry Mbah, said: “We have governments that don’t care, that are why these market unions are increasing the prices of food items in the manner they want. Let the government meet with them and tell them what they want, simple”.
A woman who sells babies’ wears at Akawkuma in Owerri, Lady Andaline said: “The people should first blame the government, they have failed us and I suspect they are the ones collaborating with these market union leaders to suffer Imo people”.
In Abakiliki, a dealer on tomatoes in Ebonyi, Mrs Aniamaka Ugoji explained that the increase in the price of goods was not her making as other factors such as insecurity, poor produce and activities of unions constitute part of the factors.
“In fact, it is not our making; remember that we have to make profit from our business. The number of trucks carrying tomatoes to the South East has reduced due to insecurity, among factors.
“With few commodities in the market, the price is bound to skyrocket. So, it is not our making. Farmers need to be given incentives from both State and Federal Governments to boost their farm produce.
“If this initiative is in place and sustained, the prices of goods and services will definitely reduce or crash. A Civil servant, Nnamdi Njoku who lamented the high increase in foodstuffs in the market noted that the development has been making it difficult for families to eat three square meals.
“We are going through difficult times. The prices in the market for foodstuffs have increased and this is affecting our standard of living. The Government and the relevant unions should bring down the price for the betterment of all and sundry”.An Enugu business man, Mr Ikechukwu Ugwuogor has exempted unions from influencing the prices of goods and commodities in the market.
“Ugwuogor, who deals on plastics and foodstuffs at the Ogbete Main market, Enugu, said that prices of goods are determined based on how they were purchased and what it took to get to the market.
“I don’t agree that unions influence prices of goods in the market. It can’t happen, the prices of goods are determined based on how you bought them. The way I buy determines my price. If you buy at the highrates, the prices will be on the high side.
“I sell my goods based on the little gain I feel is okay for me. Sometimes, I sell my goods with N500 gain or N1, 000 depending on the goods. Nobody determines the prices of commodities”, he submitted.
Suggesting the way forward, Ugwuogor said that the prices of goods can be determined by government policies; but noted that the price of petroleum products such as diesel and fuel affects the change in priceof goods.
He, therefore, called on Federal Government to assist the masses whose life is being threatened by hardship.
“We are calling on Federal Government to assist the masses in their way by bringing down pump price of petroleum products. If the driver that convey our goods buy fuel or diesel at high rate it will increasethe charge and will also affect the price of goods in the market. We sell goods based on the expenses for the goods”, he explained. (Vanguard)
