This is the story of a market woman, my story and my
experience. It was difficult getting a topic for this blog piece. You know we
writers are strung up on giving catchy topics to articles to entice readers;
this time around I didn't feel that way. I was simply looking for a way to open
a window into my soul so that you can feel what I feel right now and probably
give me an answer. “Shouldn't we have
gone beyond this?
So, I am a Nigerian, I do business in the market, I see a
lot of things, I am a graduate, there are many graduates like me in the market,
there are fathers and mothers in the market, we all make use of everyday
commodities. Let me tie all of these up and then ask my question again.
Here in the market, I see people do a lot of things to
survive; I respect that and that's also why I came here in the first place. However,
some of the things I witness here are an eyesore and really troubles me to no
end. Let me recount some.
One day, I saw an old man hawking cold satchet water in an empty
crate of soft drinks. As the water defrosted, it dripped down to his face. Meanwhile,
the worth of the entire goods he had wasn't up to ₦200. Check
what this means in our current economy? As if this isn't bad enough, in 4/10 of
all the shops in every block, someone is selling satchet water. So, the
probability that he would sell off all the satchets of water is even lower. Analyzing
the situation, he may have been a Keke driver who had to stop riding Keke
because our governor suddenly banned Keke without considering the import of
such a decision on us, the people; story for another day.
One lady, a mother of three who was selling food close to my
shop suddenly stopped. One day, I saw her hawking cold drinks; the entire worth
of what she had wasn't up a ₦1000 and the chance that she wouldn't sell all
of them was there. She had to hawk them so she can feed her children that night,
she told me when I asked why now hawks. She also said that she stopped selling food
because she was no longer making profit from it; in every block, more than
three people sell food. There are not enough people to patronize them. She, of
course, is a graduate and a teacher (paid peanuts in the private school she
teaches) who hawks in the evening.
Another time, I saw a rather plump lady carrying two buckets,
hawking of course. One contained drinks, the other snacks. It looked too heavy for
and from the way she dragged herself, you could sense it was weighing down on her
arms: A bucket containing plastic drinks is usually heavy. I prayed in my heart
that she would sell of quickly so she could go rest. A few hours later, I saw
her sitting down to rest on a neighbor's bench, exhausted; her goods pretty
much the same quantity.
I see young beautiful girls and strong young men hawking all
manner of things here in the market. I see a lot of mothers and young ladies
sell fruits all over the market and I wonder how much profit each of them make daily
seeing they are so many of them and we aren't many patronizing them.
These analogies show something:
1.
The times are tough
2.
The
level of unemployment in our country is hitting the roof top
3.
People are willing to do anything honest to get
by
I'll give the fourth shortly after I give two other analogies.
Yesterday, as I went home, I saw a young man well dressed, walking
down the road with his fumigation equipment hanging on his back and his chemicals
in a basket he carried.
Finally, this morning, I saw another young man wearing a shirt,
tie, plain trousers and dressing shoes pushing a wheelbarrow full of
insecticides and rat poison. He chanted a special song about the efficacy of
the rat poison; you could already hear the strain in his voice that early in
the day. I've seen a lot more but let me stop here. When I saw him, I was kind
of speechless. Would you call this packaging? How much would he make from that on
a daily basis?
Looking at him, I saw him wearing a shirt, and so was everyone
in my analogies. This means that clothing factories will thrive in Nigeria and
employ millions of our people- graduates and non graduates. He must have had
his bath with soap this morning, cleaned his mouth with a toothbrush and have a
perfume on or not. Most of the commodities that we use in Nigeria are imported
and some of the items we import are of inferior quality. This means we can set
up many industries that can cater to our various needs, which will also create
massive employment.
At some point I wondered why the makers of extract soap wouldn't
establish a company in Nigeria to make the soap cheaper and also employ our people.
Some time two years ago, 3 out of every 5 young ladies and many young men were
using the soap. It got so bad that those who had the soap would hoard it and
increase the price. And now, the fourth
4. Most of the everyday items we use in Nigeria are imported
while our people who are willing to work and employ their energies profitably hawk,
do menial jobs and wallow in unimaginable poverty.
Permit to ask this question again and who knows, I might
even get an answer from you. Should we not have gone beyond this?
Igbokwe
Vivian Ijeoma
Twitter/Instagram:
@club7teen
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