Children are not left behind due to the severe food insecurity that is affecting Nigeria and other West African countries.
From the north to the south, the east to the west, stories of how people can never afford to eat healthily again because of the skyrocketing prices of food in the market
Many parents bemoan the fact that feeding their tiny children is getting more and harder for them.
For many people, the mandatory three square meals have become a thing of the past due to the rising costs of food.
“I have three kids. I used to make a pot of soup for N3000 that would last for us for a few days, but today I have N10,000 left over.
An trader who sells yam flour used to chop yams once a day, to put it mildly. “I no dey chop for morning again, na around 2pm, I dey eat my first meal of di day, by di time I get home for night, I go don tire, I go just drink garri or only water go sleep.”
For Nigeria, it is no longer gold to purchase staple foods. The soaring costs of staple foods like as rice, beans, garri, yam, pasta, wheat, and vegetable oil have forced many families to change their eating patterns or look for other options.
Many people in northern Nigeria turn to rice grains that millers typically sell to farmers so they may feed their fish.
This rice is called “Afafata” in Hausa, which means “battling,” because it takes a lot of effort to cook and consume the rice.
“People didn’t care about this kind of rice a few years ago; we used to throw it away with the rice hulls, but things have changed,” Isah Hamisu, a worker at a rice mill in the northern city of Kano, told the BBC.
Even though the grains are hard, unreliable, and unclean, the low price at which they are sold makes them more appealing to pipo because they aid the less fortunate.
When rice became unaffordable once more, several families in the southwest turned to beans, a grain that wasn’t a favorite of many pipo people. However, as beans’ prices increased, beans also became unpopular.
“I never cut rice for a month because it’s too expensive; instead, I shift to beans since I can no longer afford rice. I walk to the market and say, “I’m going to buy some beans, but the price has doubled since I was here five days ago.” Mrs. Folashade informs the BBC.
