See what Nigerians do to survive recession.

by adminBecause of the economic recession, many Nigerians have lost their jobs, causing harsh ripple effects on the people. To survive, some families have adopted unusual measures, reports Omolara Akintoye
Hard times, they say, call for strange and deliberate solutions. It is a bit alarming to know some unusual and strange strategies Nigerians are now adopting to survive as the economic hardship continues to bite. Since the economic recession began, a lot of citizens have lost their jobs and this has left a harsh ripple effects on so many families as they now adopt unusual measures to survive.
Our investigation confirms that there are increased cases of petty stealing and robbery; cases of children withdrawn from schools because their parents or guardians can no longer afford the bills; cases of sick people seeking herbal remedies because they can’t afford medical bills, among other desperate measures. There are even stories of women now engaged in professional begging or in the extreme, offering sex to neighbours and strangers just for a meal.
Mr. Kola Adedire was a senior staff with one of the leading manufacturing companies in Lagos and was earning good salary for many years until June last year when he lost his job. All efforts he made to secure another job proved abortive and the meager income of his wife, who sells petty things in front of their rented two bedroom apartment, is not enough to sustain the family of five. Since last year’s October, when Adedire’s rent became due, he has been playing hide and seek with his landlord in order to buy time even as he made frantic effort to borrow money from friends and relatives to pay his rent. As at the end of the year, it became obvious to him that all his efforts to get financial help from relatives and friends proved abortive.
He therefore resolved to look for a one room apartment but was shocked to discover that the rent has sky rocketed so much that it has also become unaffordable to him. “With the way things are, I’ve already prepared my mind and told my family members that this year, 2017, we are going back to the village,” said Adedire.
The Godwins, they are being ejected from their three-bedroom apartment and because they couldn’t get money to get another apartment he lamented that he is squatting with his relatives. “As I speak to you, I, my wife and four children are squatting with my elder brother”, he lamented. For Mrs. Chinyere Ukachukwu, who lives in Amuwo-Odofin area and just delivered a baby, she narrated how she had to register in an Herbal home in order to save cost. ‘It is sad to note that although the money I was asked to pay in government hospital was not much, I don’t even have the money so I had to register in a herbal home where you pay little or nothing but mind you, you are at the mercy of those people because God forbid, if anything happens to you,” she said. “I just thank God there was no complication all through my period of pregnancy and delivery”, said Mrs. Ukachukwu.
In the case of Mrs. Odinakachukwu Ali who hails from Ebonyi State, she was caught by Ebonyi State Police while attempting to sell off her three children whose ages range between 8 months and 6 years. The reason for this according to her was because she could no longer take care of these children single-handedly. “I did not have problem with my husband when he abandoned us since April. I started doing menial jobs to enable me take care of my children. I kept doing this till it became so difficult for me to continue and I decided to return to the village”, she said. Mrs. Odinakachukwu revealed that she did not want to sell her children because she passed through Caesarean Session (C/S) before giving birth to all of them. “But life is hard”, she lamented.
There is also the case of a housewife who has been offering sex to her next door neighbour as collateral for food to feed her children. These are some of the weird things that people do now just to survive.
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