closer than you think

I was talking to my mum today - she says that people in Jos are really struggling at the minute with the cost of basic food supplies. Most of the people that she’s meeting at the clinic can only afford one meal a day, if even. This time last year, a mudu (a bit more than a kg) of rice was only 90 Naira, now it’s N320.

I know that the price of food has been rising around the world, but somehow I maybe didn’t realised quite how connected Nigeria’s food prices are to global market. Surprisingly, fuel prices haven’t peaked as much as they have here; but the changes in the world market are definitely impacting the poor the hardest. This time of year is the toughest as well because people have only recently begun planting, now that the rains are arriving; so people are using the last of their meagre supplies from last years’ harvest before the new crops arrive. The government seems to think that it will be fine again after June, which seems unlikely given the size of the prices hikes in recent months. Maybe some of their attempts to change things will work in the short term, but being a global problem, their fate is surely in the hands of the global response. In the meantime, the prices are hitting the most vulnerable now. When I read things like this: “One SUV tank of biofuel uses enough grain to feed an African family for a year” it makes me feel a bit sick.

A place that usually feels a world away, feels that bit closer today... for once, not in a good way as our economic woes are being echoed and even magnified in the pockets of Africa's poor.