But how is the dollar affecting you now?

This is the question that every average Nigerian has asked atleast 5 people in the last 2 weeks.

I saw a meme on my WhatsApp,

You that planted the ugwu in your backyard, dollar affected it too? Nigerians are just wicked people.

At first read, you’ll be like…”hmm there’s actually a point”, but diving deeper, you’ll realize that the rise in the dollar rate affects each and every person one way or another.

I was very hungry yesterday after forgetting to eat the whole day before (don’t come for me please, sometimes it gets like that), I just walked out to the store in front of my house to withdraw cash and doing small talks with the POS lady, I told her that I wanted to buy spaghetti and she goes,

“With 1k? You’re not serious na. I bought yesterday for 1.2k”

“Haba na, Ruth, e never bad like that. I bought it about 2 weeks ago for 750, where the thing dey run dey go”

“Nor be here all of us dey? You go go come back nor worry”

With a hint of doubt, I told her to give me 2k instead of the 1k I had initially budgeted.

Walking past two stores I got to the store I usually get things from.

“ Mama Abeg give me spaghetti”

“Na 1.3k”

The blood of Jesus Christ! Spaghetti? Asin those long long ropes? My mouth was almost on the floor. The woman just burst out laughing. I quietly paid the money and walked back home. Ruth saw me walking down the road counting my fingers. I was calculating how much the price went up in the space of two weeks. She too started laughing.

“E shock you abi? “

What am I trying to say?

I don’t want to use big words and go all economist on you (I studied agricultural economics) as to why the dollar affects every body but I’m sure this instance gave you a clear picture.

The woman at your junction frying corn, she might have never even seen a dollar note in her life, but she knows that indomie has gone from 300 to 600 naira in 2 weeks. It would also be evident that she has 4 children all under 10 who eat indomie 4 times a week. If she doesn’t increase the price of her corn, how would she be able to afford the indomie?

The man selling fresh catfish deep inside the market, ofcourse dollar has nothing to do with him, but the price of animal feed has done a triple in the last month, how would he pay for the feed if he doesn’t increase his price ?

The woman frying garri, what’s her business with dollar that she has increased a bucket from 1k to 1.5k? Simple, she has to buy kerosene to get the firewood burning, and guess what has happened to the price of kerosene?, yes, you got it right, it has increased too.

So before you judge the average Nigerian for increasing his/her price when he/she has no visible connection to dollar, think again. No doubt, some people would make use of this opportunity to rip their customers, those are just witches and wizards, I’m not talking about them sadly.

I’m talking about the woman frying akara, the man selling okrika, the girl hawking agbo, the malam selling orange, your tailor sewing your clothes. Every single person has been affected by this recession one way or the other.