Friday, February 2, 2024-Hundreds of women
including local bread producers popularly known as “Gurasa” today February 2,
staged a protest on the streets of Kano over the high cost of living especially
the hike in the price of flour used largely for the production of the staple food.
The women
and some children were chanting “Everything is expensive, especially flour and
grains, Tinubu come to our aid, we cannot feed our families, most of us are
widows, and people are dying of hunger.”
Speaking with Journalists shortly after the protest, the leader of the
group, Hajiya Fatima Auwal, demanded better living conditions at a time when
high inflation is making it even tougher for people to make ends meet.
“We are out here on
the streets protesting to let the leaders know the deteriorating situation in
which we are at the moment. This is how our small-scale business is facing
deterioration due to the rise in the price of flour, it is a business for the
poor that the rich cannot dare venture into. We are in a very difficult
situation, we need help. This is a small-scale industry mostly run by women.
Life is becoming more difficult, we can hardly feed or send our children to
school due to this hardship. Many have lost their capital. It is such that only
25 percent of us are now remaining in the business as many others have closed
down due to lack of capital. We used to buy floor at the rate of N16,000 in the
past but now it sells for N43,000. This is absurd. What we produce is a common
food for the poor and is now becoming unaffordable. Any time we go to buy flour
we get an increase of N1,500 to N2,000.''she said
The protest leader, who is the Chairperson of local Gurasa producers in
Kano called on the authorities and those concerned to look into the matter as
they can't run their businesses which is affecting their families.
“Currently, we cannot afford it any longer. If nothing is done, we have no choice but to close down and this will affect the general public.”
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