TWENTY-FOUR hours to this year’s Eid-el-Kabir, many Muslims in the country are still grappling with the prohibitive cost of rams and the other types of animals approved for sacrifice to commemorate the festival.
For the Muslim faithful, making meals out of the animals for merriment is also not promising to be a walk in the park, as prices of tomatoes, pepper and other ingredients have continued to spike across the country.
Eid-el-Kabir is celebrated annually by Muslims worldwide through the slaughtering of animals to reflect Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, for the sake of God.
In Lagos and other states, the prices of rams and food items have risen significantly beyond the reach of the common man.
In some instances, cash-strapped Muslims in groups of seven are buying cow for sharing.
“It is cheaper when compared with the very high cost of rams,” one of them told Saturday Tribune.
Market surveys conducted by Saturday Tribune indicated that the prices of rams, cows and the other sacrificial animals, compared to last year, have increased by 200 per cent.
This is just as five egg-size tomatoes sell for N1,000 while a small bulb of onion goes for N100.
The chairman of Mile 12 International Market, Lagos, Alhaji Shehu Usman, blamed the hike in the prices on the cost of transportation, feeding and other costs incurred by traders journeying from the northern part of the country to Lagos and Ogun States.
He lamented the enormous increase in the prices of rams, cows and perishable commodities which he said are now beyond the reach of many Nigerians.
He said: “Everybody is feeling the harsh realities because the economy is so bad. The purchasing power of an average individual is reducing on a daily basis.
“For instance, last year, a big ram that was bought from the North for N80,000 was sold for N120,000 in Lagos with all other expenses added. But today, this is not the case.
“The same size of ram is bought for N200,000 from the North, excluding the cost of transportation, feeding, tax and ticket. This is the size that now sells for as high as N400,000 or N500,000 in Lagos and Ogun states.
“During this sallah period, many Muslims cannot afford to buy cows or rams because of the uncontrolled prices. This is why you see many rams at the market with no buyers. This time around, it is only the government that can afford to buy rams and cows and give them out to people. Our people are crying.
“Can you imagine the amount of money the traders spend on feeding the cows and rams and themselves? But at the end of the day, they record zero sales and return them to the North unsold, incurring huge losses.”
On the high cost of perishable items like tomatoes and pepper, Usman said: “I am not surprised at the high cost of perishable commodities because the scarcity has to do with insecurity in the North. The farmers are unable to go to farms. Just yesterday (Tuesday), farmers in Birnin Gwari protested to the local government chairman that bandits are stopping them from farming.
He said: “This is a very serious issue. Apart from this, we are in the off season. Tomatoes come in December, January and February but now, there are no tomatoes in the North because the farmers cannot access their farms. Many of them are in the IDP camps and as long as they remain in the camps, the scarcity will persist.
“The bandits threaten our farmers and prevent them from farming. The country is also not importing food items. So, where do we get food? The situation is very bad.
“The immediate solution to this food crisis is for the Federal Government to open the borders and allow food importation for at least three months. This will help to resolve the current food scarcity. The government can thereafter close the borders to enable our farmers concentrate on farming. They must check the growing insecurity.
“In the North, food items are so expensive to the point that many Northerners now eat garri. They have started eating eba. Northerners don’t eat garri and eba, but now go to the North: They eat eba like there is no tomorrow.
“This is because they cannot afford to buy rice to make their preferred tuwo shinkafa and tuwo ndawa. Rice is expensive and the cheapest food they believe they can get this time around is eba. This has also affected the price of garri because a large number of people from the North now eat eba. This increase in the demand for garri in the North has caused scarcity of the commodity in the South West.”
In Agege, Epe, Lagos Mainland and Ijora, prices of rams and cows are beyond what an average individual could cope with, leaving both prospective buyers and sellers stranded and perplexed.
At the abattoir cow market in Agege, a medium-size cow sells for between N1.2m and N2.5m while a ram goes for between N150,000 and N700,000.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune, a buyer at the market, Alhaji Saheed Ashafa, said he bought his cow at the market at N2.5 million.
“I bought a medium-size cow for N2.5 million at the Agege Abattoir. This cannot be compared to a bigger cow that I bought in Katsina State for N2.2 million. I cannot blame the traders because they also have to consider the cost of transporting the cows and rams from the North and the cost of feeding them. I can only appeal to the government to address the hardship in the land. The cost of fuel is the main factor affecting the cost of commodities.”
A resident, Mr Saheed Olakunle, said at Olaleye Market in Ebute-Meta, Lagos Mainland Local Government, the prices of rams ranged between N150,000 and N450,000 while cows sold for between N800,000 and N1.5 million.
He said: “About two months ago, I bought my sallah cow at N500,000. This was off the festive season but this time around, a cow of the same size sells for between N800,000 and N1.5 million. I bought mine early to avoid buying at an exorbitant price. The price is uncontrollably high. And since the religious act is something I planned for, I had to buy my cow two months to the sallah festivity but despite buying it earlier, I bought it at N500,000.”
Another resident in Ijora in Apapa Iganmu LCDA, Abdul-Salam Ayinla, said a medium-size ram cost as high as N120,000, compared to the N90,000 the same size sold for last year.
He said: “The high cost of rams is an annual occurrence but this year, it is unbearable. A small ram I bought at Railway Market in Ijora Badia for N90,000 in 2023 now sells for N180,000. An uncle who works at the slaughter slab at the abattoir in Agege told me that he bought for N1.5 million this year, the same size of cow which he bought for N900,000 in 2023.
“The differences in the prices are the reason many Muslims may not afford to slaughter a ram or a cow for the sallah celebration. The cost of rams and commodities is unbearable.”
In Epe, Lagos, a ram dealer, Afeez Kabir, blamed the removal of fuel subsidy and the high cost of transport fare from the North to Lagos for the high cost of rams and cows.
Kabir said: “The removal of fuel subsidy is responsible for the high cost of rams and cows. Principally, rams are brought into the North from Niger Republic and Chad. The Northern traders bought their rams and cows in CFA franc and it becomes a big price when converted into Naira.
“The fuel subsidy removal is another factor. This has affected the cost of transporting the rams and cows from the North to the South West. Many traders have been forced out of business because of the uncontrolled prices. They incurred additional cost on feeding and this will add to the cost of purchase which translates into high cost of rams and cows as witnessed this year.
“Insecurity is never a determining factor for the prices of rams and cows. I visit the North often. There are secure markets where you can buy your rams except those traders that decide to make their purchase from places like Maiduguri where banditry is rampant.
“When I visited Katsina this year to buy rams, the prices were unbearable. The increase was almost 100 per cent, compared to the prices in 2023. The kind of ram that was bought at N80,000 in 2023 was sold for between N120,000 and N150,000 at Mai’Adua Local Government Area market.
“If your bargaining skill was not good enough, you could spend more. It was impossible to make much profit because the price was too high for buyers.
“When we add the cost of transportation from the North to Lagos and the cost of feeding, the cost of a ram from the North is about N200,000. A trailer charges N10,000 per ram and between N25,000 and N30 per cow from the North to Lagos. Feeding a cow cost about N4,000.”
The cost of rams and food items has left many with no other option than to avoid any major celebration this year.
Before, virtually every street in Ibadan, Oyo State, became a livestock market with people purchasing rams without getting to major markets, but this year, just hours before the celebration, visits to areas where rams were normally sold showed that there were no activities there.
When Saturday Tribune visited some points in Basorun, Ashi and Bodija where rams are sold annually, it was discovered that only a few dealers have rams to sell this year. According to the available sellers, “we have fewer rams this year and customers are also few.”
Biodun Dada, one of the ram sellers at Basorun who rears rams specially to sell during Eid-el-Kabir, said: “We have fewer rams this year because it is more expensive taking care of them. Feeding animals these days is not a child’s play and the few we have, people are just pricing them and going away. Only a few of the animals have been bought. Even when we reduce the prices to ensure we offload these rams, sales are still extremely low.”
An average sized ram now costs the as much as a cow used to cost. In Basorun, the price of ram ranges between N200,000 and N850,000 and the rams are not as big as expected.
At Bodija Market, some have rams that cost N180,000 but the rams are sizes of normal goats and according to the sellers, very few people are ready to buy those.
“You see these small ones, no one would have touched them in previous years but now some people are managing to buy them out of desperation. They are so small that they can’t feed much people. I know that anyone that buys this size is just doing it as a symbol of faith. They will have to augment with other things.
“Here, we have rams of N850,000 and one million naira. If you want to buy a good ram, you need at least N350,000 to N500,000 and if you are looking at a very big ram, you must prepare at least 750,000,” Hamad Mohammed told Saturday Tribune.
A ram trader, Waliu Hassan, told Saturday Tribune that despite the low turnout of potential buyers, “we are still highly expectant because of the tradition of buyers arriving just a day or two to sallah. Some even buy on Sallah Day for many reasons; for security reasons and because some don’t want their compound to be dirty or are too busy to keep them for days before use.”
But ram isn’t the only thing that is expensive now; all other food items, especially pepper, are now beyond the reach of the common man and feeding an average family is becoming increasingly difficult.
To buy pepper for sallah is a Herculean task now as N50,000 pepper cannot cook a small ram and the situation isn’t likely to change in the next few days.
A kongo of Oloyin beans that was sold at N3,000 is now sold at betweenN3,800 and N4,000 at Bodija Market. A big bowl of garri containing 32 kongos which cost N32,000 a few weeks ago is now N42,000. A kongo of melon which was N2,500 is now N3,000 and a kongo of ogbono seed is now N15,000.
Saturday Tribune findings also revealed that the price of elubo has skyrocketed and all forms of vegetables and okra are becoming untouchable. A small pack of vegetable sold at N100 is now divided into three and sold at N200 apiece while eight pieces of okro is sold at N200 and an average spaghetti brand sells at N750.
“Food is so expensive that I wonder how I will feed neighbours when feeding my family alone is already difficult. This sallah cannot be like the previous ones. I don’t think we have ever had it this bad. Rice is so expensive and other food items are also jumping up like a symphony. I wanted to buy yam, thinking it would be more cost effective but three tubers of yam are N6,000. That means I should just go and buy rice because you can’t even vouch for the quality of the yam,” Olu Ajobo, who came to buy things at Bodija Market, said
According to market analysis, prices of staple food across the country, especially grains, have seen almost 100 per cent increase within a year due to many reasons, including disruption in global supply chains due to conflicts in the Middle East and Europe, withdrawal of Russia from the United Nations Black Sea grain deal that allowed free passage of grains to Sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria. The disruption of cargo traffic around the Black Sea by Houthi rebels also contributed to the increase in food prices.
Locally, reasons attributed to the hike in prices of food items include the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu which led to increase in transportation fares across the country and the depreciation of the naira following the unification of the foreign exchange market.
When our correspondent visited ram markets in Lokoja, Kogi State, on Wednesday, it was observed that an average size ram sold for between N150,000 and N300,000.
According to one of the ram sellers, Malam Yahaya Sule, only a few people had come to patronise him. He attributed the cost to the economic situation in the country.
He said a small ram which was normally sold for N60,000 or N75,000 now cost over N100,000 in the market.
The prices of other food items such as rice, tomatoes, pepper and vegetable oil have also continued to go up.
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