Residents of Zamfara State have lamented that this year’s Eid el- Kabir has come with serious economic hardship, saying that they cannot afford to buy rams for the celebration as required by Islam.
They lamented that they were financially handicapped, pointing out that the price of rams continues to escalate on a daily basis even though there is not enough money in circulation.
However, a market survey carried out by DAILY POST revealed that rams that were being sold at the cost of N30,000 had risen to over N65,000, an over 80 percent increase.
One Alhaji Hussein Abubakar told this medium that he usually buys five big rams every year because he has extended family, stressing that this year he could only manage to buy two due to economic hardship.
“The problem is that the rams are very scarce in the market and the prices of the few rams have skyrocketed,” he lamented.
“We know that the high cost of rams was not designed by the dealers but due to the insecurity situation ravaging the state as many farmers have fled from their villages because of terror attacks.”
Another buyer, who gave his name as Mohammed Umar Gumi, said that he came to the market with N25,000 to buy ram but could not get a ram of that amount.
When this medium went to the cattle market popularly known as “Kara market” in Gusau, the state capital, a dealer, Musa, said they also bought the rams at high cost from the villagers.
According to him, the rams always come from villages, pointing out that the villagers no longer bring enough cattle from the villages as usual due to banditry in the state.
The dealer showed our correspondent some rams he pegged the prices between N95,000 to N110,000, stressing that nobody has priced them as they all complain of paucity of funds.
He explained that the escalating prices do not affect only cattle but all foodstuffs being produced in the villages, adding that most farmers have abandoned their farming activities because of the teething problems of banditry.
However, a civil servant who did not want to mention his name blamed the state government for not helping the state’s civil servants with salary advance especially during this important season.
The civil servant cited the example of Sokoto State Governor, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal who directed that workers salaries and allowances of July should be paid on the 15th of this month.
He lamented that Zamfara State was the first state in the federation to implement Sharia law, saying that the state government should prove it by making civil servants very comfortable.
DAILY POST
