DOLLAR WAHALA --by Kreed

(Image source: www.bellanaija.com)

"We poor people, sometimes na we dey carry our hands kill our self." she said. You could hear a pint of bitterness in her voice. She had called in on a radio program to complain about the change in the price of commodities. Everything in the market has been on the rise ever since the Nigerian Naira depreciated. Certain commodities should but not all. Commodities such as the ones purchased from abroad...imported goods. However, I'm still struggling to understand why Naira's depreciation should affect the price of garri in the market, as has been the case for about a week now. I mean all of a sudden, every market woman has become an importer. Nigeria hardly exports anything, except oil (to the best of my knowledge). We mostly import, we can so import for 'Africa'. However, I doubt if our situation is so bad as to warrant us to start importing pepper, onions, even our very own suya! Hia!

We're always quick to criticize our 'elected' and appointed officials but when it's time to practice, we always make excuses to favour us. Reminds me of a taxi I boarded some time last year. It was during the fuel scarcity period. From the start of the journey to the end, apart from driving, the only other thing he did was to criticise the government. At the end of the trip, he charged every occupant an extra amount. His reason was simple, fuel price had increased but unbeknownst to him, he had unconsciously told us he purchased his fuel a day before the fuel hike. Of course, everybody paid the normal fare...except me of course.

One thing these sellers fail to understand is this, once they start placing emphasis on quick profits, short-changing their customers in the process, that's when the customers begin to look for other alternatives. Tomorrow, when they begin to lose their customers, they'll begin to accuse their extended family of witchcraft and claim they're working against their progress.

Nigerians are just fond of trying to make profits from every misfortune. Generally, the populace has this self-centered mentality: "What do I stand to gain from this?" rather than: "Does my intended action impact negatively on others?" People will always try to do what favours, even if it is at the detriment of others. That's why we're still an underdeveloped nation—that spirit of sacrifice is missing.

Trying to make profit through this avenue, is simply fraud. You might want to justify your actions, "it's just ten naira profit so it's no crime."  The truth, however is this, if you had a chance to swindle more from these unsuspecting customers, you’d do it without a second thought. If you can cheat for something that little, then you can do same for more. Therefore, you're no different from the man that walks into a bank with a gun or the man that kidnaps for a ransom. Your methods differ but the aim is the same

 In all of these however, the price of egg roll remains unchanged :-D. Testimony time!