Women Bemoan The Harsh Economy

It was 5.45pm but a housewife and mother of five was yet to feed on the day internationally dedicated to celebrate women, March 8, 2024. While women across the globe celebrated, Mrs Patience Edo was on her sick bed and lack of money had not allowed her to access proper health or eat properly to aid her poor condition.
“Hunger don wire me since morning,” she announced as she handed crumbled N100 note to a female relative, who was in her one-room apartment on a solidarity visit. She asked her to use the money to buy for her, a piece of roast yam prepared by a lady near the house.
“I have been trying to manage the little money I have to feed the children; this N100 is all that is left,” she narrated to National Point. Bewildered, the reporter had to fish out some biscuits and N250 for a bottle soft drink to help out.
Patience’s plight exemplifies the stress women are going through in the face of the current state of cash crunch and accompanying hyper-inflation in the country. The 43 year old mother said life is now a nightmare for women.
“Every day you go to the market, you hear of price increase and there is no extra money coming in from anywhere to help you adjust.
“If you are lucky, you will have rice and garri. We are just eating rice or garri with or without meat or fish, nothing more. Beans which is important for children’s growth, used to be cheap but it is costly now. A normal tomato cup is N300 and it does not rise as before so, you need at least six cups to feed my family; that’s for one meal. How much do I have for feeding?” she asked.
Madam Chinyere Nwofo, a petty trader lamented that for her family of six, with four growing children, breakfast alone gulps N3000. The husband works in an oil service company but they also feel the pain.
“We, the mothers are suffering and it is affecting our health. I have four growing children (11 to eight years) and these days, they eat and complain that they are not satisfied. We buy two big loaves of bread, N1400 each and if you add milk, beverage or any other thing, it comes to N3000 just for breakfast! And we have to eat lunch abi? Where is money coming for the new extra expenses that keep rising daily?”
Chinyere is grateful to God that she recently opened a shop from which she is supporting the family but complained that not much is coming in as profit as prices keep jumping. She also lamented over high transportation cost.
“Transport takes too much from us. Once they see you with luggage, they charge heavily; it is affecting us”.
She said many women are now sick because of the stress of managing housekeeping. “I have been having headache trying to juggle things, thinking of how to manage. Look at my hand (pointing at a card of analgesic), my son just bought it for me to take because I have developed serious headache,” she stated.
Women were milling around her wearing long faces as they tried to figure out what to purchase with the money in their hand.
“Life has suddenly turned harsh for women. You have to carefully calculate before you buy anything. Small-size cooked cassava, loioi that sold for N50 a few months ago, jumped to N100 and is now N150/N250 for two balls that cannot satisfy a child.
“You cannot make a small pot of soup with less than N5000/N6000. Garri too has gone up, one custard of garri is N2400, so how they want us to cope?” Mrs Stella James, mother of three lamented.
“I am not surprised that a woman tried to sell her son at the Mile Three Market. The stress is just too much,” another mother, who would not give her name stated.
All the women spoken to called for some quick action by government to salvage the situation.
“We know that this suffering started the day President Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy. There is need to reduce the price of fuel and cooking gas and also find a way to control the price of the dollar and pound.
The women added, “Landlords are already increasing rent but we are using the same salary and earnings to service these increases. This is too much. Soon children may not be going to school and, that will mean more trouble,” said a worried Chinyere.
From National Point investigations the cost of transportation is already keeping some students away from school especially, those whose schools are far from their residence.