[size=14pt]Hunger looms…as Hausa traders stop food supplies to other parts of the country [/size]
By Ebun Babalola & Olasunkanmi Akoni
Saturday, March 13, 2010


A call from the Deputy Editor, Saturday Vanguard, Chioma Gabriel, changed my entire Thursday routine. Ordinarily, as a journalist, I would resume duty as early as possible especially as Thursdays are hectic production days.

[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2010/mar/13/vanguard/images/MILE-12-A[1].jpg[/img]
Traders at the Mile 12 Market, Lagos



http://odili.net/news/source/2010/mar/13/304.html

The call was neither for me to call some personalities who are in politics nor was it the usual assignments. It was a different ball game.

I was asked to report at the popular Mile12 market and the reason given for this assignment was that,Hausa traders had embarked on strike.One question that came to my mind was why on earth would tomatoes sellers go on strike?

On getting to Mile 12, it dawned on me that a bowl of tomatoes that usually sold for N100 now sells for a thousand naira (N1000).

Based on the information gathered, the Hausa who are major wholesalers in the trade have indeed embarked on strike since March 8, because of the persistence problem encountered while transporting their goods from the farms to the city. The goods include tomatoes, meat, yam, pepper, chilly pepper, spices amongst others.

At exactly, 10.30 a.m. Thursday, the ever busy Mile 12 market was scanty. I walked up to a meat seller and asked where I can get tomatoes . His answer was scary. He said, “Madam, if you want to buy tomatoes, you have to go to the North”.

“Why? “ the writer asked.

“I wouldn’t know. They said, the Hausa are on strike, they said the money they are collecting from them is too much. They said that LASTMA is disturbing them. They said the police is collecting too much money than expected and to worsen the situation, the touts are not helping matters.”

“ Who are the they?” the writer asked.

“ Madam, please, leave me alone, I don’t know what you want from me”, he answered.

In another encounter with a woman who was selling pumpkin leaves, (Ugu), she said, “the Hausa have been lamenting over this issue for the past two months before they finally embarked on this strike. Look at that man sitting over there, he used to sell tomatoes but now, he is selling onions because he couldn’t get tomatoes to buy”.

Mallam Musa Abubakar told Saturday Vanguard that “the strike started Monday, March 8 but he doesn’t know when it would end.”

According to him, “the Hausa have been suffering in the hands of the so-called government agencies. They are protesting multiple taxation paid as revenue which is becoming unbearable thereby frustrating the efforts of the Hausa traders. And apart from government, the LASTMA, policemen, touts also collect theirs. The total amount collected at the end of the day is always between 50,000 and 100,000 per trailer.”

As at the time of this investigation, market women and men who spoke with Saturday Vanguard lamented that the strike is now affecting their businesses. The reason they gave is that since the Hausa have gone on strike, prices of other food items have gone higher than expected.

Further investigation revealed that a plate of tomatoes in Mile 12 that used to be sold for N100 is now N1000 while the ones sold for N50 before is now N300. A bowl of rotten tomatoes which used to be sold for N100 is now N500. Buyers now crave for what is available.Even the ever rejected rotten tomatoes suddenly became appealing to the buyers. They were ready to buy whatever seemed like tomatoes in the market.

The strike which has entered its sixth day is now becoming unbearable for market women and men, not only in Mile 12 but other markets in different parts of the country especially Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Kwara and other parts of the country.

At present, traders from the Northern parts of Nigeria have boycotted various markets especially Lagos as there have been no supply of cows, tomatoes, pepper, yam, chilly pepper and other food items from the North to Lagos markets, thus leading to the scarcity of these commodities.

Speaking with Saturday Vanguard, the chairman, Mile 12 Market Men and Women Traders Association, Alhaji Haruna Mohammed said the nationwide strike became inevitable based on the multiple taxes they pay on the trucks bringing food items from the North to Southern states and Lagos.

He explained: “Each state these trucks pass through from the North down to Lagos collects taxes. A trailer loaded with foodstuffs ends up paying up to N100,000 on taxes before getting to Lagos. The worst is the Ogun State government. After paying at their border towns , we get to Lagos to pay another round of taxes.”

Mohammed said the nationwide strike started on Monday and wouldn’t know when it would end.

Northerners are teaching southerners that man shall not live by oil alone.

;d ;d :d

bgees= jona?

Aloy+Emeka:

bgees= jona?

no.

The characteristics are the same.

But the Govt should look into the taxes of a thing. Its not right to pay double tax at the long run the food price will increase and consumers will be the once to bear the brunt. All these agbero, lastman or whatever should be banned from Nigeerian roads. Everyday you keep on seeing new formed uniform men extorting money from evrybody on the street.

Aloy+Emeka:

Northerners are teaching southerners that man shall not live by oil alone.

is too funny, don forget is one nation different people.

this is one of the characteristic of a failed state,

this is serious o , i was at the market today as my Sunday's routine to get some soup things i was surprised to price 2 pieces of onions for 100NGN . I just vex commot

Shebi when the Hausa traders warned you lot of their impending strike, una been dey laugh. . . . hehehehe. . . hunger go fire una if una no speak to LASTMA and the other extortionists dat hamper their trade.

Ibime:

Shebi when the Hausa traders warned you lot of their impending strike, una been dey laugh. . . . hehehehe. . . hunger go fire una if una no speak to LASTMA and the other extortionists dat hamper their trade.

He he he, let's see how the heads will be like after one week of famine in the south.

toideve:

this is serious o , i was at the market today as my Sunday's routine to get some soup things i was surprised to price 2 pieces of onions for 100NGN . I just vex commot

This tells you there is real money in farming.

What are the food stuff grown in the North? Can people do without them except for beaf? Are they supplying the south food for free? Will they not also need money, or will they allow the produce to perish instead? It is a lose-lose situation for both parties. Igbo importers should start importing food soon. Hahahah

Igbo importers should start importing food soon. Hahahah

yeah right. from china abi.

Time for me to make some money off of this crisis.

It is the Igbo way!

Lagos, we Igbos will be your saviors.

as long as there is money to be made, igbos will enter the business

df2006:

as long as there is money to be made, igbos will enter the business

Is that a bad thing?

It is just our entrepreneurial spirit.

Sad sad!!!! Farming needs to be supported in all corners of the country to tackle national crisis like this. This has a political message written all over it. So the Hausas can actually punish us like this? Allah or no food ahahahahahaha

@mekus, you're a RACIST, everyone contributed reasonably but you came with your uncurable sickness.

The fed govt has food reserves some of which, like beans, was actually imported from Mali and other WA countries and not grown in the North. The only meaningful food that the North supplies the south is beaf. We grow our own yams, and rice is mostly imported from outside with some sprinkling growth in Abakaliki and other areas in both south and North. Fish is not supplied by the North. Tomato is, but we can make do with imported tin tomato. The Northern traders will eventually crawl on their knees begging, when all their harvests perish due to spoilage, with no subsidy from the feds to cushion the effect. They too need money to buy things other than food. Some of us can actually call their bluff.

18 platoon:

@mekus, you're a RACIST, everyone contributed reasonably but you came with your uncurable sickness.

The bolded is the only thing I can see there. Bloody functional illiterate

@mekus, welldone educated TOUT.

the south will simply adjust. you can survive without tomatoes . . . lets see what happens when federal allocations are withheld from northern states.

davidylan:

the south will simply adjust. you can survive without tomatoes . . . lets see what happens when federal allocations are withheld from northern states.

How will Ekiti man survive without pounded yam?

Aloy+Emeka:

How will Ekiti man survive without pounded yam?

ekiti man can't manage with indomie noodles and okin biscuit?

bawomolo:

ekiti man can't manage with indomie noodles and okin biscuit?

They better learn how to manage it now until Hausa temper cools down.

bawomolo:

ekiti man can't manage with indomie noodles and okin biscuit?

No.

This is one of the many problems we'll have if Nigeria separates

FL Gators:

No.

This is one of the many problems we'll have if Nigeria separates

Go and teach them how to survive on pepperoni pizza. Yoruba man shall not live by amala and ewedu alone.

lol ok, that was funny.

.OMG!. . .wen is dz 'strike' gonna end?. . .i need t0matoes. .