Not Only Age Goes Up And Never Comes Down…

ageAt the very beginning of this year, the dominant repetition of what seems to be the chorus of the scarcity song was the rise in the value of the Dollar which affected everything that was sold and bought with the Naira. Even commodities as trivial as sachet water and ‘fufu’ were affected. Then it was common for a woman who grinds pepper to say that the dollar hike had also affected the services she rendered with her grinding machine. It was easy for everybody to blame the dollar hike as the cause of his exploitative motive.

Apparently, now that the price of the Dollar has dropped, if not to its normal rate, these commodities have not returned to their previous prices. A mere six months ago, a student taking a break from reading in the library could have bought a sachet of pure water, a biscuit and a wrap of sweet with just twenty naira. Now, it is impossible to do that because the price of each commodity has increased. That same student, with his or her twenty naira, can only buy a sachet of water, a wrap of sweet and nothing else! These days, a five naira note will tarry in one’s wallet until another joins it or it is totally forgotten.

Now that the dollar hike is no longer a very convincing argument, many have shifted on their stand and have pitched their tents with the removal of subsidy on petroleum. By no means will they go back to what used to obtain. Anyone who did that would be branded ‘a slacker’. The price of goods in Nigeria, just like age, is what goes up and never comes down. This upward movement is ironical as it is only visible in the prices of goods and services, while that of the general state of the country is the reverse.

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