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People Exchange Kids, Clothes For Food To Survive Hard Times

A man from Kano used his son as collateral for a bag of 50 kilogram rice at a popular market in Kano after being unable to provide for his family anymore.

A middle-aged woman in Ibadan, Oyo State, had used her seven-year-old daughter as deposit for a bowl of garri six weeks ago. Hit by pang of hunger, the woman had tricked the seller into believing that she forgot the money at home and would rush to fetch it while her innocent child stayed back. By the time the girl led the trader to their house hours later, the widow and her two remaining children were already feasting on the item. The seller quietly walked away in shock after finding out the motive behind the strange behaviour.

A drinking joint operator in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, Ibiba Dakoru, told Punch Newspaper during a telephone conversation in the course of the week that some customers now plead with her to convert drinks bought for them by friends into money so that they purchase food items with it. According to her, customers in this category would only drink around one or two from about four or more bottles bought for them by buoyant friends while pleading with her to convert the rest to money. She said she started witnessing the trend among her customers three weeks ago

A food vendor in the Mile 12 area of Lagos simply known as Iya Mubarak, told Saturday PUNCH that pleas for credits by customers had increased significantly over the last few weeks so much so that her once thriving business is now under severe threat.According to her, apart from owing debts running into thousands of naira, many customers now use some of their valuable items like mobile phones, shoes, wristwatches and even expensive fabric materials to stand as deposits for meals pending when they’ll be able to offset their bills with her.

Mr. Bayo Aluko, a public relations executive at a leading communications agency in Ikeja, Lagos, has had to part with various sums of money as handouts to people especially on Sundays when he visits his mother at their family home in the Ikorodu area of the city. Apart from the regular financial assistance to some old time friends and even elderly neighbours around the place who would immediately come into the family compound on sighting his vehicle or noticing his presence, his mother, a retired civil servant, also gives them free meals during such unsolicited visits.

Also, the rising trend has equally seen individuals attending parties and other social gatherings where there are plenty to eat and drink without being invited. Once able to smuggle themselves into such venues, individuals in this bizarre survival practice stuff as much food as they can lay their hands on into polythene bags and even sacks to take home to eat with their families. Smart young men now leverage on the crowd at such social events to make brisk money and also combat hunger. While some turn emergency praise singers, hailing and flocking around people for a token at such gathering.

Hmmmmm!!!