By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
Women in their hundreds, including local bread producers popularly known as “Gurasa” marched through the streets of the ancient city of Kano on Friday, protesting the high cost of living especially the hike in the price of flour used largely for the production of the staple food.
The women together with children were chanting various song including “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.”
Addressing 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.” she lamented.
“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.
The protest leader, who doubled as the Chairperson of local Gurasa producers in Kano called on the authorities and those concerned to look into this matter as they are running out of business which 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.”, they lamented.
