“Christmas cloth” … Who e epp?

Nigeria is a peculiar Country. According to the World Food programme, about 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to eat. The highest prevalence of hunger is found in Sub-Saharan Africa , where Nigeria is situated . About one out of four people are undernourished. As of the year 2010 , statistics showed that about 100million people in Nigeria lived on a dollar a day . NIGERIA IS ONE OF THE POOREST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD.

However … Nigeria was one of the largest consumers of champagne in 2013.

Statistics have also revealed in the past that Nigerian tourists in the UK are the fourth biggest foreign spenders, spending up to four times what an average UK shopper will spend. This reveals that there is a great divide between the poor and the rich. The poor are very poor and the rich, incredibly rich.

I am convinced beyond any reasonable doubt, though that a review of statistics will come up with different results in this year, 2016.

Recession has hit every level of the Nigerian socio-economy. For instance, rice was daily consumed in most homes until last year, when a bag seized to be 7,000 and became 20,000 naira. A crate of eggs is now about 1000 naira and just a few months ago, it was 700 naira. Garri is no longer poor man’s food.

There are things that I have done this year that I didn’t think of doing same time last year . I really buy vegetable now because I plant what I consume in the backyard. But the backyard has always been there ! so what changed ? Recession….A number of things we never did we now do, that we never ate we now eat , that we always bought , we don’t buy anymore.

Loya and Nunu milk, for instance, have been around for a while but I never noticed them ( despite the fact that Don Jazzy appears in their advert !). Even if I did, I was NOT going to buy them because if it ain’t peak, it ain’t chic !LOL !

However , considering the price difference I decided to try Loya , and its quite good! Now this time last year I wouldn’t give Loya a chance!

I have been eating local rice for about a year now, and it’s not bad at all. Obviously it was difficult for me to accept as an alternative to the typical rice, but when I consider the fact that I can purchase one and a half bags of local rice with the amount I need to buy a bag of the typical rice, man mi, I no get choice o.

This present situation brings to bear one of our major problems as a people…” buying cloth for every occasion” its your birthday, buy new cloth, your parents’ anniversary, new cloth. First day at work, you wear “new cloth”. Some people’s wardrobe looks like Okrika Market. The wahala be say, you cant wear more than one dress at a time, that is of course assuming that you are mentally stable !

Christmas is round the corner and I can hear people complaining about not having enough money to purchase “ Christmas Cloth” ! For what abeg ? na your birthday ? shu! Please cancel that from your list and wear something you already have, trust me “ the birthday boy” won’t be upset …. This “ Christmas cloth “ , abeg who e epp?